Fatty acid composition of colostrum and mature human milk in Hungary

INTRODUCTION AND AIMS: Because of the lack of up-to-date data on fatty acid composition of human milk in Hungary, the authors analysed fatty acid composition of colostrum (n = 18, one hind milk sample on day 5 after delivery) and mature milk (n = 15, pooled 24 h collections repeated twice with 2 weeks intervals at median duration of lactation of 4 months) samples with high-resolution capillary gas chromatography. RESULTS: Fat content and fatty acid compositions did not differ in 24 h pooled mature human milk samples obtained with 2 weeks intervals. Significantly lower values of linoleic acid 10.98 (4.81) vs. 14.70 (5.32), % w/w, median (range from the 1st to the 3rd quartile), colostrum vs. mature human milk, p < 0.001] and alpha-linolenic acid 0.22 (0.09) vs. 0.68 (0.21), p < 0.0001], and significantly higher values of arachidonic acid 0.70 (0.56) vs. 0.50 (0.12), p < 0.001] and docosahexaenoic acid 0.22 (0.15) vs. 0.18 (0.06), p < 0.05] were found in colostrum than in mature human milk. Significant and positive correlations were seen between linoleic and arachidonic (r = 0.71, p = 0.001) as well as between alpha-linolenic and docosahexaenoic (r = 0.59, p = 0.01) acid values in colostrum, but not in mature human milk. CONCLUSION: While mature human milk linoleic, arachidonic and alpha-linolenic acid values in this study were in the range usually reported in the literature, the contribution of docosahexaenoic acid to the fatty acid composition of human milk was considerably lower in Hungary than in several other populations.