Asses' milk (Donkey's milk)

Foal drinking milk from its mother.

Asses’ milk or donkey’s milk is the milk given by the female ass or donkey. It has been used since Egyptian antiquity for both alimentary and cosmetic reasons.

General points

A female ass gives between 0.2 to 0.3 litres of milk a day. The milk of a donkey was disapproved by the U.S.D.A until 2001. Unfortunately, it is frowned upon in the average American society.^[1] A donkey dairy farm may range from a few to over 600 animals.^[2]

Composition

Donkey milk, along with mare’s milk, is the closest to breast milk,^[3] with notably low lipid ratios and high lactose ratios.^[4]

Composition of donkey’s, mare’s, human and cow’s milk (g/100 g)[4]
composition	donkey	mare	human	cow
pH	7.0 – 7.2	7.18	7.0 – 7.5	6.6 – 6.8
Protein g/100g	1.5 – 1.8	1.5 – 2.8	0.9 – 1.7	3.1 – 3.8
Fat g/100g	0.3 – 1.8	0.5 – 2.0	3.5 – 4.0	3.5 – 3.9
Lactose g/100g	5.8 – 7.4	5.8 – 7.0	6.3 – 7.0	4.4 – 4.9
Total Solids (TS) g/100 g	8.8-11.7	9.3-11.6	11.7-12.9	12.5-13.0
Casein Nitrogen (CN) g/100 g	0.64-1.03	0.94-1.2	0.32-0.42	2.46-2.80
Whey protein g/100 g	0.49-0.80	0.74-0.91	0.68-0.83	0.55-0.70
NPN g/100 g	0.18-0.41	0.17-0.35	0.26-0.32	0.1-0.19
Casein Nitrogen (CN) %	47.28	50	26.06	77.23
Whey protein %	36.96	38.79	53.52	17.54
NPN %	15.76	11.21	20.42	5.23

Alimentary use

Donkey milk is considered to be the closest to woman’s milk.^[1][3] It is very nourishing because it contains more lactose and less fat than cow’s milk.^[1] It was used until the beginning of the twentieth century as a substitute to breast milk.^[5] The 1928 testimony of Dr. Charles Porcher (1872-1933) of the Lyon National Veterinary Institution showed that the practice was still used, to a lesser extent, in the interwar years:

It seems that we are getting back to asses’ milk to raise children in the earliest infancy, notably when the child is of delicate health. Asses’ milk has not been quite totally abandoned, but if 25 or 30 years ago, a few well looked-after asses were easily found in the city to provide milk nourishing young babies, it is no longer the case today.^[6]

More recently, studies have shown that that asses’ milk could serve as an alternative to cow’s milk for children allergic to bovine proteins.^[4][7]

Cosmetic use

It is said that Cleopatra, Queen of Ancient Egypt, took baths in asses’ milk to preserve the beauty and youth of her skin.^[1] Legend has it that no less than 700 asses were needed to provide the quantity of milk necessary for her daily bath.^[8][9]

This was also the case of Poppaea Sabina (30 – 65), second wife of Roman Emperor Nero, who is referred to in Pliny’s description of the asses’ milk virtues for the skin:

It is generally believed that asses' milk effaces wrinkles in the face, renders the skin more delicate, and preserves its whiteness : and it is a well-known fact, that some women are in the habit of washing their face with it seven times daily, strictly observing that number. Poppaea, the wife of the Emperor Nero, was the first to practise this; indeed, she had sitting-baths, prepared solely with asses' milk, for which purpose whole troops of she- asses used to attend her on her journeys.^[10]

Pauline Bonaparte (1780–1825), Napoleon’s sister, is also reported to have used asses’ milk for her skin’s health care.^[8]

Asses' milk is still used today in the manufacture of soaps and moisturizers.^{[citation needed]} The sales revenue complements what asses’ breeders earn from raising livestock and renting asses to hikers.^{[citation needed]}

Medical use

Asses’ milk was also formerly used in medicine. Its healing virtues have been known since Antiquity, when doctors would recommend it to cure diverse affections.

Hippocrates (460 – 370 BC), the father of medicine, prescribed asses’ milk for numerous purposes, such as liver troubles, infectious diseases, fevers,^[11][12] oedema, nose bleeds, poisonings, and wounds.

In his encyclopedic work Naturalis Historia, volume 28, dealing with remedies derived from animals, Pliny the Elder (23 – 79 AD) proposed it to fight poisonings, fever, fatigue, eye stains, weakened teeth, face wrinkles, ulcerations, asthma and certain gynecological troubles:

Asses' milk, in cases where gypsum, white-lead, sulphur, or quick-silver, have been taken internally. This last is good too for constipation attendant upon fever, and is remarkably useful as a gargle for ulcerations of the throat. It is taken, also, internally, by patients suffering from atrophy, for the purpose of recruiting their exhausted strength ; as also in cases of fever unattended with head-ache. The ancients held it as one of their grand secrets, to administer to children, before taking food, a semisextarius of asses' milk, or for want of that, goats' milk ; a similar dose, too, was given to children troubled with chafing of the rectum at stool.^[1]

In case where persons have swallowed quicksilver, bacon is the proper remedy to be employed. Poisons are neutralized by taking asses' milk ; henbane more particularly, mistletoe, hem- lock, the flesh of the sea-hare, opocarpathon, pharicon, and dorycnium: the same, too, where coagulated milk has been productive of bad effects, for the biestings,' JO or first curdled milk, should be reckoned as nothing short of a poison. We shall have to mention many other uses to which asses' milk is applied ; but it should be remembered that in all cases it must be used fresh, or, if not, as new as possible, and warmed, for there is nothing that more speedily loses its virtue.^[10]

When the teeth have been loosened by a blow, they are strengthened by using asses' milk or else ashes of the burnt teeth of that animal, or a horse's lichen, reduced to powder, and injected into the ear with oil.^[10]

An ass's hoof, reduced to ashes and applied with asses' milk, is used for the removal of marks in the eyes and indurations of the crystalline humours.^[10]

Ulcerations of the stomach are effectually treated with asses' milk or cows' milk.^[10]

asses' milk boiled with bulbs, the whey being the part used, with the addition of nasturtium steeped in water and tempered with honey, in the proportion of one cyathus of nasturtium to three semi-sextarii of whey. The liver or lights of a fox, taken in red wine, or bear's gall in water, facilitate the respiration.^[10]

The disease called tenesmus, or in other words, a frequent and ineffectual desire to go to stool, is removed by drinking asses' milk or cows' milk.^[10]

If pains are felt in the breasts, they will be alleviated by drinking asses' milk ; and the same milk, taken with honey, has considerable efficacy as an emmenagogue.^[10]

Similarly, Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon, (1707–1788) mentions the benefits of asses’ milk in his Histoire naturelle: "Asses’ milk, on the contrary, is a well-tried remedy specific to certain illnesses, and the use of this remedy has been retained from the Greeks until us."^[13]

In Tamil Nadu of South India, Donkey's Milk is given to New Born Human for better and sound voice. Usually it is given only once. Rare occasions it is given twice. The quantity of Milk given varies between 5 to 10 ml, but not more than that.

Summary/Conclusion from a scientific study

According to a paper published by the Journal of Dairy Science from American Dairy Science Association, titled: "Composition, Physiochemical Properties, Nitrogen Fraction Distribution, and Amino Acid Profile of Donkey Milk by H.Y.Guo et al", the donkey milk was shown to be poor in protein and fat and rich in lactose, which is more similar to mare and human milk than to other mammalian milk. It was also characterized by a low CN content and a particularly a high whey protein content that was rich in β-LG and lysozyme. The percentages of 8 essential AA in the protein of donkey milk were higher than those of mare and cow milk; the milk also had higher levels of Ser, Glu, Arg, and Val and a lower level of Cys. As a result, donkey milk exhibited unique nutritional characteristics and has optimal potential to be used as a new dietetic food and breast milk substitute. Lactation stage affected the gross composition of donkey milk but had no significant effect on pH, percentage of whey protein and CN, and AA content, except Asp and Thr. The work may be a promising basis for the study and exploitation of donkey milk. However, more systematic studies are needed.

See also

• Breast milk
• Moose milk
• Sheep milk

Notes and references

This article incorporates information from this version of the equivalent article on the French Wikipedia.

1. ^ ^{a b c d e} Chappez, Gérard (2000). L'âne: histoire, mythe et réalité : tiré de Bougres d'ânes. Editions Cabedita. pp. 56–57. ISBN 9782882952783. http://books.google.com/?id=klMMY9I934YC. 
2. ^ "Group Objectives". Eurolactis. http://www.eurolactis.com/en/eurolactis-group/group-objectives.html. Retrieved 2009-10-22. 
3. ^ ^{a b} Encyclopaedia Britannica: Arts, Science and miscellaneous Literature. Edinburgh: Archibald Constable & Cie. 1823. p. 752. http://books.google.com/?id=bFyLkNjtVgYC&pg=RA1-PA752&lpg=RA1-PA752&dq=asses'+milk+literature. 
4. ^ ^{a b c} Guo, H.Y.; et al (April 2007). "Composition, physiochemical properties, nitrogen fraction distribution, and amino acid profile of donkey milk.". Journal of dairy science (Journal of Dairy Science) 90 (4): 1635–43. doi:10.3168/jds.2006-600. PMID 17369203.  Full text at [1]
5. ^ Brunet, Isabelle; Katy Gawelik (2007). Guide d’initiation à la santé au naturel, vol. 2. Editions Abondance. p. 10. http://manuscritdepot.com/livres-gratuits/pdf-livres/sante_naturel_v2.pdf. 
6. ^ Fanica, Pierre-Olivier (2008). Le lait, la vache et le citadin. Du XVIIe au XXe siècle. Editions Quae. ISBN 978-2-7592-0114-3. 
7. ^ Muraro, M.A.; P.G. Giampietro, E. Galli (2002). "Soy formulas and nonbovine milk". Annals of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology (American College of Allergy, Asthma, & Immunology) 89 (Supp. 1) (6 Suppl 1): 97–101. PMID 12487214. 
8. ^ ^{a b} "L’âne le meilleur ami de l’homme". L'Extension.com. 2008-07-15. http://www.lextension.com/index.php?page=theme&idActu=9810&theme=Economie%20durable. Retrieved 2009-03-20. 
9. ^ Siegel, Jessica (1993). "Asses' milk and Melons". The Record. http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P1-22662601.html. 
10. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h} Pliny the Elder (1855). The Natural History. BOOK XXVIII. REMEDIES DERIVED FROM LIVING CREATURES.. John Bostock. http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0137&query=toc:head%3D%232037. 
11. ^ Hippocrates; Francis Adams (trans.) (1843). The Genuine Work of Hippocrates. Vol. 1. Sydenham Society. http://books.google.com/?id=OqAEAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA331&dq=hippocrates+asses%27+milk. 
12. ^ "Lait d’ânesse, une véritable fontaine de jouvence". 2006-11-07. http://www.aquadesign.be/news/article-4343.php. 
13. ^ Leclerc, Comte de Buffon, Georges-Louis (1835). L'Histoire naturelle, générale et particulière, avec la description du Cabinet du Roy. Tome Cinquième. P. Duménil. p. 40. http://books.google.com/?id=OV9IAAAAMAAJ. 

External links

• Eurolactis, european leader in donkey's milk