What is Colostrum*?
Colostrum is nature's perfect first food. It supplies immune and growth factors along with a perfect combination of vitamins and minerals to insure the health, vitality, and growth of the newborn. Colostrum has applications for every generation and it is never too late to start gaining the benefits of life's precious first food.
Colostrum is the pre-milk substance produced from all mammals at birth. True bovine colostrum is the pre-milk in the udder when the calf is born. This true colostrum can be collected during the first milking within 16 hours after birth. After this it becomes transitional milk and after 5 days after birth it is milk.
It is estimated that colostrum triggers at least fifty processes in the newborn, including transferring the immune factors and the memory from the mother's own immune system. Bovine colostrum balances the immune system and is a natural source of many vitamins, minerals, enzymes and amino acids. Supplementation of colostrum enhances the efficiency of amino acid and carbohydrate fuel uptake by the intestine, making more nutrients are made available for muscle cells and other vital tissues and organs.
What Are the Major Components in Colostrum?
The most important components of colostrum can be broken down into three major categories: Immune System Factors, Growth Factors, and Nutritional Components.
| Immune Factors |
|---|
Proline-Rich Polypeptides (PRPs) |
| Immunoglobulins |
| Lactofferin |
| Transferrin |
| Cytokines |
| Lysozymes |
| Enzymes |
| Lactalbumin |
| Glycoproteins |
| Others |
| Growth Factors |
|---|
Insulin-like Growth Factor |
| Transforming Growth Factor (TGF-α, TGF-β) |
| Epithelial Growth Factor |
| Epidermal Growth Factor |
| Fibroblast Growth Factor |
| Platelet Derived Growth Factor |
| Others |
| Nutritional Components | |||
|---|---|---|---|
Vitamins |
Minerals |
Amino Acids |
Essential Oils |
Immune Factors
Proline-Rich Polypeptides (PRPs)
Peptides are short chains of amino acids — the building blocks of proteins — without the complex tertiary structure of proteins. Proline-rich polypeptides (PRPs), so-called because they contain an unusually high proportion of the amino acid proline, are intercellular signaling molecules that have the unique ability to modulate the immune system, turning it up when needed or turning it down when it is overactive.
Immunomodulating colostral peptides appear under various names in literature, including transfer factor, colostrinin and Proline-rich polypeptides (PRPs).
They work as hormones that regulate the thymus gland (bodies central command for the immune system), stimulating an underactive immune system or down-regulating an overactive immune system.
Immunoglobulins (IgG, IgA, IgE, IgM, IgD)
The function of these immunoglobulins (antibodies) is as follows:
- IgG — predominant immunoglobulin in bovine milk colostrum; primary function is to identify and help destroy invading pathogenic microbes.
- IgA — predominant immunoglobulin in human milk and colostrum; primary role is as first line of defense, protects mucosal surfaces and prevents the attachment of pathogens to them.
- IgM — primary role is "first to fight;" enhances phagocytosis by destroying invading pathogens.
- IgE — involved with the allergic reaction and histamine-associated allergic reaction; also involved with active defense against enteric parasites.
- IgD — attached to B cells; it stimulates lymphocytes to produce antibodies by presenting antigens to them.
Laboratory analyses of both immune and growth factors from bovine colostrum indicate that they are identical to those found in human colostrum except for the fact that the levels of these factors are significantly higher in the bovine version. Bovine colostrum is actually 40 times richer in immune factors than human colostrum. For example, human colostrum contains 2% of IgG (immunoglobulin G) while cow colostrum contains 86% of IgG, the most important of the immunoglobulins found in the body.
Local protection in the form of immuno-supplementation with bovine milk antibodies has been shown to be an effective means of providing local protection to the GI tract.
Lactoferrin
α - Lactalbumin and β - Lactoglobulin
Cytokines
Lysozymes
Lysozymes can help support the immune system.
Enzymes
Lactoperidase-thiocyanate, peroxidase, and xanthine oxidase oxidize bacteria through their ability to release hydrogen peroxide.
Glycoproteins
Glycoproteins are a digestive factor that has been shown to help immune and growth factors survive the passage through the highly acidic digestive system.
Growth Factors
Growth factors, are peptides that function as intercellular signaling molecules to turn on or turn off the production of specific proteins in the target cells.
Their presence in colostrum is primarily to complete the growth and development of the newborn gut, but in older children and adults they help support a healthy gut wall.
Nutritional Components
Vitamins, Minerals, Amino Acids, and Essential Oils
Colostrum is a combination of vitamins, minerals, and amino acids that are naturally occurring in a perfect combination. Vitamins A, B1, B2, B6, B12, and E are found in small amounts while traces of all other vitamins, as well as minerals such as calcium, sodium, magnesium and zinc, are also present in colostrum. Colostrum is a rich source of both essential and non-essential aminoacids, as well as essential fats, including phospholipids, which enable colostral protein protection and easy absorption in the gut by forming liposomes around them.
Learn more about colostrum in references.
* The statements on this page have not been evaluated by the US Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.
