[ninubear]

This is probably a very strange question...

I am wanting to find a way to solidify a small amount of human milk, maybe a few grams. I can do this with cow's milk by adding acid to react with the casein. The milk I am wanting to use has a much lower amount of casein and does not react to the addition of acid. Is there some way to achieve a solidified form?

[Arkcon]

So you want to curdle human milk?  I guess to make human milk cheese?  If its at all possible, I'm sure someone would mention something along those lines.

[ninubear]

I would like to solidify it in some fashion as a gel, paste, or something like it. This is not for consumption so it being edible is not a concern.

Might it be possible to isolate and use the lactose since it is a major constituent?

[billnotgatez]

This is not for consumption so it being edible is not a concern.

Why not mix it with a carrier that does solidify, like glue.

[ninubear]

I would like to keep most of the resulting material mostly being from the actual milk if possible. I have tried adding to some glue but it does not dry very well at all.

[Furanone]

A very gentle way to make into solid form is to pour milk on a Petri dish as a thin film (3-5 mm thick) and place in a fumehood overnight. Next day, it will be easy to mortar & pestle into a powder. To create a paste from it, add water back but at 1/5 the original amount.

Human milk is much lower in protein (~1%) overall than cow's milk (3.3-3.5%) and additionally the ratio of caseins-to-whey proteins is much lower in human milk (1:2) than cow's milk (3:1). Caseins are the proteins that precipitate to form curds by acid (ie yogurt and some soft cheeses) or by enzymatic hydrolysis of kappa casein with rennet/chymosin (ie most cheeses), while whey proteins are acid stable but can be precipitated with high heat treatment to denature proteins and form intermolecular cystine disulfide linkages (ie Ricotta cheese).


 
Although the total solids of human milk and cow's milk is similar, most human milk is lactose necessary for brain development. While in cows, due to their massive newborn calf size, require a huge amount of calcium (see ash content of cows milk 0.7% compared to human milk 0.2%), which the primary purpose of casein is to deliver calcium in quantities that would be insoluble without binding to casein proteins as calcium phosphate nanoclusters, with caseins being a protein source for the neonate calf secondary. Typically as the size of the newborn increase, so does the casein content in the milk to support this bone development. In humans, this is also one of the main theories as to why traditionally some geographical regions produce on average taller larger people (Scandinavia - high milk consumption during formative years) vs. shorter smaller people (Far East & Africa - low milk consumption during formative years) -- although this is changing dramatically as the world's access to milk products is not as limited as in past.