The chemistry of milk

This article was originally posted at Amazing Zoology. View original article at http://amzoo.in/urah0

Image Credit: Compound Interest

Milk is a complex mixture of Water, fat, proteins, minerals and other compounds. As fats and water don’t mix well, fat and water form an emulsion in milk.


Triglycerides make up the fats in milk. These are molecules with a glycerol backbone and three fatty acid chains attached. Most common fatty acids in milk are palmitic, oleic, stearic, and myristic acids. The variations in the amounts of these acids are a consequence of what cows eat.


Proteins are another important component in milk that gives milk its white appearance. Casein is the main type of protein among hundreds of others.


In milk, proteins cluster together to form structures called micelles. They grow from small clusters of calcium phosphate, which held the proteins together. The micelles are on average about 150 nanometres in diameter, and are able to scatter light that hits them. This scattering gives the milk its white colour.


Other compounds found dissolved in milk are vitamins, minerals and a sugar called lactose. Lactose is a sugar found only in milk and dairy products.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

What makes poison dart frog resistant to their on poison?

Image
This article was originally posted at Amazing Zoology . View original article at http://amzoo.in/sksq7 © Brian Gratwicke | CC BY 2.0 Contents 1 Poison Dart Frog 2 How is the toxin produced? 3 Physiology of the toxin 4 Why doesn’t the toxin affect the frog itself? 5 References Poison Dart Frog Golden poison frog ( Phyllobates terribilis ) is one of the deadliest poisonous animals in the world. These animals are endemic to the Pacific coast of Colombia. An average one milligram of poison available in one frog is enough to kill 10-20 humans [1] . Indigenous people carefully expose the frog to the heat of a fire, and the frog exudes small amounts of poisonous fluid. The tips of arrows and darts are soaked in the fluid. Their deadly effect kept for over two years [2] . The interesting question is, what makes the frog itself resistant to this deadly poison! How is the toxin produced? These animals store Batrachotoxin, a steroidal alkaloid toxin in their skin gla...
Read more

Bat-roost? To curb malaria!

Image
This article was originally posted at Amazing Zoology . View original article at https://amazingzoology.com/bat-roost-curb-malaria/ 110 years ago, one man set out to rid Texas of Malaria – with the help of what was then a very unlikely source… bats! Dr. Charles A. Campbell had a simple plan. He knew that bats eat mosquitoes, and believed that if he could entice thousands of bats to live in Malaria-ridden areas, they would single-wingedly eradicate the disease. After years of fruitless experimentation with small roosting boxe s, he decided to go BIG, with a 30-foot tower containing roosting shelves, guano lures, and a meal plan – three large hams! The $500 contraption was, alas, a flop. Campbell realized that he didn’t understand bats enough to provide suitable homes. He spent months studying caves and roosts to learn what bats needed most. In 1911 he constructed a new, improved tower at Mitchell’s Lake, where 90% of the locals were sick with Malaria. Within...
Read more

These electron microscopic images of human body will astonish you

Image
This article was originally posted at Amazing Zoology Artery Coloured scanning electron micrograph (SEM) of a a small artery (blood vessel) cut open with RBCs (red coloured) rushing outside. Blood Clot Coloured scanning electron micrograph (SEM) of red blood cells (erythrocytes) trapped in a fibrin mesh (yellow). The production of fibrin is triggered by cells called platelets, activated when a blood vessel is damaged. The fibrin binds the various blood cells together, forming a solid structure called a blood clot. A blood clot is a normal response, preventing an excessive loss of blood. However, inappropriate clotting is a major cause of heart attacks and strokes. Red Blood Cells (RBC) They look like little cinnamon candies here, but they are actually the most common type of blood cell in the human body – red blood cells (RBCs). These biconcave-shaped cells have the tall task of carrying oxygen to our entire body; in women there are about 4 to 5 million RBCs per micro liter (cubic...
Read more