Focus on Lactoferrin & Lactoperoxidase

摘要

When, some 40 years ago, I designed two milk trees, the first carrying only the main branches of milk, cream, butter, cultured milks, cheese dried milks and ice cream, and the second one branching out into various shoots carrying the then new products like flavoured yogurts, I never dreamt that today's milk tree would carry double the number of shoots with an increasing number of products and ingredients. This review is devoted to just two minor, but powerful, ingredients, lactoferrin (LF), an iron-binding bioactive whey protein with a wide range of biological functions, and lactoperoxidase (LPO), a powerful bactericidal agent in the presence of thiocyanate and H_2O_2. Some of the pioneering work on the potentials of these ingredients in the dairy and pharmaceutical industries was carried out by Dr Bruno Reiter and his colleagues at the former National Institute for Research in Dairying at Shinfield, UK.