Compared with cow’s milk, the milks of minor dairy animal species are know to be richer in nutrients and have a variety of bioactivities such as antibacterial, anticancer activity and antifatigue activity. However, consumers have little knowledge about the nutritional value of the milks of minor species and their production volume, market share and consumption are all low. Current studies regarding the milks of minor dairy species primarily concentrate on nutrient composition and single functional activities but often neglect the overall activity of all functional components. Systematic studies on the functional components, physiological effects and mechanisms of action of the milks of minor dairy species are lacking. In this paper, recent progress in studying the functional activities of donkey milk, buffalo milk, camel milk and goat milk is reviewed, and an outlook on future trends is given. This review hopes to provide a scientific basis for future research and development of high-quality, health dairy products from minor dairy species.

(1.College of Food Science and Engineering, Qilu University of Technology (Shandong Academy of Sciences), Jinan 250353, China; 2.Shandong Panda Dairy Co. Ltd., Jinan 251400, China; 3.Qingdao Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Institute, Qingdao 266000, China)

Milk proteins are high-quality proteins, mainly consisting of whey proteins and caseins. In whey proteins, branched-chain amino acids are 2.7 times more abundant than aromatic amino acids. Antioxidant peptides can be produced in large quantity from the hydrolysis of caseins. The main milk proteins, with well-balanced amino acid composition, show great promise as a source of bioactive peptides. In this paper, we review the state of the art in the preparation of high F value oligopeptides and elucidate the feasibility of preparing high F value oligopeptides from milk proteins, in order to provide a theoretical basis for expand the source of high F value oligopeptides.