FATTY-ACID COMPOSITION OF BREAST-MILK LIPIDS OF NIGERIAN WOMAN

Breast milk lipids from 13 lactating women in Southern Nigeria who were moderate to severely malnourished and whose mean body mass index (BMI) was 20.2 (+/- 1.9) and (16.4 +/- 1.2)), respectively were separated into various neutral lipid and phospholipid fractions and analyzed for their fatty acid compositions. There were no differences in the content of free fatty acids, diglycerides, triglycerides or the major phospholipid classes between the two groups of women. Three saturated fatty acids (12:0, 14:0, and 16:0) and oleic acid accounted for more than three-fourths of the total fatty acids in the triglyceride fractions. Lauric acid (12:0) and myristic acid (14:0), intermediate-chain length fatty acids which are readily digested, absorbed and oxidized by newborn infants, comprised an unusually high proportion (approximately 40%) of the fatty acids of the total breast milk lipids. While the breast milk of all the mothers we studied contained moderate levels of linoleic acid [18:2(n-6)], they were markedly deficient in another essential fatty acid, namely alpha-linolenic acid [18:3(n-3)]. A lack of alpha-linolenic acid could result in a deficiency of docosahexaenoic acid [22:6(n-3)] in the central nervous system of the infants being nursed by these mothers.