Overview
Fayed and colleagues measured fat, protein, lactose and solids in 20 camel milk samples from Marsa Matrouh, Egypt, and zinc, copper, iron, selenium, cobalt and nickel in six of them by flame AAS. Nickel is the only element of concern reported; lead, cadmium, arsenic and mercury were not measured. The printed first author on the paper’s running header is “Abd Elhaseeb”; the byline reads Abd Elhaseeb H. Fayed.
Key numbers
- Nickel “0.148 ± 0.008” (Table 3, unit not printed; the discussion gives 0.146 ppm).
- Selenium “2.449 ±0.262” and iron “1.252 ± 0.059” (Table 3; ppm per the abstract).
- Zinc “0.579 ± 0.082”, copper “0.099 ± 0.009”, cobalt “0.019 ± 0.002” (Table 3), mean ± SE, n = 6.
Methods (brief)
One mL of milk was digested for 24 hours at room temperature in nitric and hydrochloric acids, diluted to 15 mL and read by flame AAS (Buck Scientific 210 VGP). No detection limit, reference material or recovery is reported. Table 3 omits the unit; ppm comes from the abstract and discussion.
Evidence Fitness
Weak for heavy metals: only nickel is reported, from six samples, by a method (room-temperature digestion, flame AAS) poorly suited to trace nickel in milk, with no quality control. The selenium value is unusually high for milk. It measures raw camel milk directly but gives no lead or cadmium data.