Extraction of camel rennet and its comparison with calf rennet extract

Abstract

Camel milk requires more calf rennet than cow milk to coagulate and the relative amount of rennet needed varies widely (2, 8, 14, 16). Extracts of adult camel abomasa have been used to coagulate cow milk with success (5, 6, 7). However, these enzymes have not been tried on camel milk. Rennet extracts from lamb and cow calves were found to be more effective with the milk of the respective species (12), while pig chymosin and pepsin respectively, were found to have a higher milk clotting activity in pig milk than in cow milk (9). Accordingly, it would not be surprising if camel rennet is more effective on camel milk than calf rennet. This work was therefore aimed at extracting camel rennet and testing its ability to coagulate camel and cow milk compared to calf rennet extract, chymosin and pepsin.