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Dielectric properties of human colostrum at microwave frequencies

Anil Lonappan1, Chadrasekharan Rajasekharan, Vinu Thomas

  • 1Department of Electronics, Microwave Tomography and Materials Research Laboratory, Cochin University of Science and Technology, Kochi-682 022, India. anil@cusat.ac.in

The Journal of Microwave Power and Electromagnetic Energy : a Publication of the International Microwave Power Institute
|December 29, 2007
PubMed

This article communicates the study of both the dielectric properties of human colostrums and breast milk at microwave frequencies. The colostrum samples were taken immediately after child birth and breast milk samples were collected at weekly intervals following the delivery. Rectangular cavity perturbation technique is used for the measurements of dielectric properties at the S-band of microwave frequency. The dielectric constants of the colostrums samples and breast milk samples are found to increase as weeks elapse, which is attributed to the reduced fat content and increased lactose concentration. The conductivity of these samples is similarly found to increase due to the increased dilution.

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