ABSTRACT
The composition of human milk and the potential benefit of breast-feeding for term and preterm infants, have attracted much attention in recent years. In particular, the interest has focused on the protein fraction of milk. A remarkably low concentration of protein is considered to be balanced by an unusually high biological value. A consequence of the nutritional value being of major concern is that much less interest has been paid to proteins present in only low concentration. However, although such proteins may play an insignificant role from a quantitative point of view, they may have nutritional value due to specific qualitative functions, e.g., the enzymes in milk. This has become evident particularly from studies of the lipolytic enzymes secreted with the milk, i.e., the lipases.
