Chemical composition of date fruits at different stages of maturity from five cultivars

Usually, date fruits are classified into four stages of maturity i.e., kimri, khalal, rutab and tamer . This study examined how the date fruit composition varied with the stage of maturity and cultivar. Consumption of khalal and rutab fruits must be encouraged as these are better sources of some of the nutrients, especially dietary fiber, ascorbic acid, ‐carotene and many phytochemicals. Interestingly, date fruits are extremely low in fat (~ 1%) and sodium (15–94 ppm) but very high in potassium (403‐1668 mg/100g) content, thus proving to be an excellent food for persons suffering from hypertension. The astringency of kimri stage date fruit is due to the presence of phenolic substances (tannins). Kimri stage date fruit contains a maximum amount of tannins, which decreases as the fruit's maturity progresses towards the tamer stage (2.5 0.4 %, dry basis). These phenolics are known to be strong antioxidants and prevent oxidative damage to DNA, lipids and proteins, which may play a role in chronic diseases such as cancer and cardiovascular disease. Under in vitro conditions, dose‐dependent inhibition of superoxide and hydroxyl radicals by the aqueous extract of date fruit has been reported. In time course study of lipid peroxides, the complete inhibition of TBARS formation has been obtained using an extract of 2.0 mg/ml of date fruit. An extract concentration of 4.0 mg/ml of date fruit has been shown to completely inhibit lipid peroxide and protein carbonyl formation. In a dose‐dependent manner, the date fruit extract has been shown to inhibit benzo(a)pyrene‐induced mutagenicity on Salmonella tester strains TA‐98 and TA‐100.