Date Palm Essay

1. Date Palm Introduction
Date is considered as oldest mankind's food crop and has been used for 6000 years (Kwaasi, 2003). The date palm is member of family Arecaceae and has three portions; thin crusted flesh, date pit inside flesh and cap. The dates rank third in Pakistan among most important fruits and grown over an area of 93336 hectares, with a total production of 680107 tons annually. In 2008 almost 557.5 thousand tons production of dates was recorded (Al-Hooti et al., 2002). It was reported that 5000 date palm cultivars are found worldwide; out of this 325 cultivars are in Pakistan (Jamil et al., 2010). Date production is about 7.5 million tonnes of fruit worldwide and Pakistan contributes 72 thousand tonnes (FAO, 2011). Composition of date fruit includes seed which is covered by a fleshy peri carp and this fleshy portion constitutes almost 85% to 90% of whole date fruit weight.
Date fruit includes almost all nutrients like water,

Analysis was also conducted to determine the amount of total phenolics present in processed dates (AbdulAmeer, 2008). The increment of total phenols in DF was observed during drying that was significant in Omani dates (Al-Farsi et al., 2005) and Iranian dates (Biglari et al., 2008) but non significant in California dates. Quality and amount of phenolic antioxidants among fresh and dried fruits were compared. During the study of seven fruits (apricots, cranberries, dates (Deglet Noor and Zahidi), figs, green grapes, and plums), it was concluded that the highest concentration of polyphenols among dried fruits was present in date fruit. It was also verified that in fresh date fruit the total phenolic contents were six times higher than the dried ones. As compared to other fruits dates have high level of phenolics this is due to greater exposure to extreme temperature and sunlight (Vinson et al.,