3.4. Vitamin C content
The results regarding the vitamin C contents of milk showed
that zones A, B and C had the vitamin C contents 4.88 mg/
100 g, 4.58 mg/100 g and 4.431 mg/100 g, respectively. The zone
A contained the significantly higher vitamin C content than
other two zones. The overall mean showed that vitamin C was
the highest (6.68 mg/100 g) in the month of February and the
lowest (2.89 mg/100 g) in the month of May and June (Fig. 4).
The vitamin C level of milk varies widely from day to day
and between individual milking animals. The season of the
year, individuality, breed of the cow and stage of lactation appear to be the most important factors causing variation in the
vitamin C content of fresh milk. The results found were in
accordance with the finding of Whitnah and Riddell (1988)
they found that the vitamin C content of fresh milk is high
in March and vary greatly among different months of the year.
Reported values of vitamin C content fluctuate significantly
mainly due to the influence of the handling and storage of
the samples prior to analysis. The vitamin C content in our
study was in the same range as that reported by Fox and
McSweeny, 1998 and Lindmark-Mansson et al. (2003).