Review on Composition, Nutritional and Medicinal Value of Camel

The camels are the most dominant and widely distributed animal in tropical and subtropical continents of Africa and Asia. They make an important contribution to human survival and utilization of these dry and arid lands. The objective of this review is to describe the general compositions of camel milk and its nutritive and medicinal values. Camels are an important source of milk, meat, hides, wool and serve as a source of prestige for their owners. Camel’s products like milk, meat and urine has nutritional value as well as therapeutic for different human diseases especially in the pastoral communities. Milk is the lacteal secretion of mammary gland of mammals. As it is well known, milk is the first natural food of young mammals during the period immediately after birth. Camel milk is one of the most valuable food resources in the nomadic society and has high nutritive and therapeutic values, due to its essential elements like minerals, vitamins, fatty acids, carbohydrates and protective proteins such as, lactoferrin, lacto peroxidase, lysozme, peptidoglycan recognition protein and immunoglobulins. Camel milk contains disease-fighting immunoglobulins, which are small in size, allowing penetration of antigens and boosting the effectiveness of the immune system. Camel milk has a medicinal properties suggesting that, this milk contains protective proteins, which may have a possible role for enhancing immune defense mechanism. Due to its protective proteins and other components, camel’s milk is important for the treatment of diseases like, dropsy, jaundice, spleen ailment, tuberculosis, asthma, anemia, autoimmune diseases (autism), constipation, crohn’s diseases, and liver cirrhosis also serve as beauty products. Pastoralists have indigenous knowledge in treating their animals and themselves using milk. Because they are living at periphery and remote area where social services are in scarce or even absence and therefore, they depends on traditional medicines. Camel milk is among the items used as traditional medicine in pastoral communities. Generally, Camel milk is extremely nutritious and safe for consumption and has a high therapeutic value, so experimental researches should be conducted specially on the medicinal value of camel milk.