The health values of Phoenix dactylifera (dates): A review

Abstract

Dates are one of the most prominent types of fruits spread in the Middle East and North Africa and have been an essential part of thediet of the Arab world since ancient times. It has been called “nature’s candy” due to its sweet taste, which is attributed to its high sugarcontent. Date fruits have great nutritional and therapeutic value, due to the variety of elements they contain, as they contain a goodpercentage of fiber, vitamins, and minerals, especially magnesium, potassium, selenium, calcium salts, and fatty acids (lauric, linoleic,palmitic, and citric acid) as well as an excellent source of antioxidants (flavonoids, polyphenols, and carotenoids) which offer significanthealth-promoting and disease-fighting benefits. In this review, the origin of the date palm fruits was studied, and the nutritional valuewas compared between three types of dates (Ruthana, Sukari, Ajwa) in terms of the nutritional components and the therapeutic values,which is proven by several studies. The nutritional content of date fruits; sugars, beneficial fats, nutritious proteins, and phytochemicalswas reviewed. The health benefits of date fruits include their ability to inhibit free radicals, anti-inflammatory activity, cytotoxicity oncancer cell lines, and the applications for its use as a functional food were indicated. The exact mechanisms still need further researchand exploration, specifically, Ruthana fruits as this type of available literature showed a research gap that could be investigated