Chemical composition and quality of date syrup as affected by pectinase/cellulase enzyme treatment

Abstract

The date palm tree, which is native to the Mediterranean region and originated in the Arabian Gulf area, is now becoming an important commercial crop in Kuwait. Because of the tremendous efforts of the Public Authority for Agriculture and Fisheries Resources, date palm cultivation has developed quickly in Kuwait during the last decade. These newly planted date fruit trees, as well as tissue culture plants being produced and distributed by KISR, would start bearing fruit in a few years. It may not then be possible to consume all the fresh date fruit locally and, subsequently, newer avenues for turning this surplus fruit into value-added products will become a necessity and a commercially viable venture. Technology was developed on a laboratory scale for the production of date syrup from tamer fruits of two commercial varieties, Birhi and Safri, for further use in food products. Both the varieties were found to be high in total sugar contents (about 88%). Among the various extraction procedures employed for producing date syrup, the use of pectinase/cellulase enzymes gave the highest recovery of total soluble solids (68%) compared with control without these enzymes (35%). The CIE L∗a∗b∗ color values for diluted as well as concentrated date syrup of Birhi variety were found to be lower than the Safri variety, indicating lighter color for the former. The results indicate the possibility of employing pectinase/cellulase enzymes to produce concentrated date syrup from tamer fruits for use in food product development.