Nutritional composition of fruit of four date palm (Phoenix dactylifera L.)cultivars grown in Haryana, India

Abstract

The present investigation was conducted to evaluate the nutrient composition of four varieties of date fruit. The results of the study indicated that the variety Shamran had highest protein (2.77%) content and the variety Medjool the lowest (1.88%). Fat and crude fibre contents of date fruit varieties ranged from 0.17 to 0.50% and 1.71 to 2.22%, respectively. The variety Medjool had lowest amount of total soluble sugars (67.49g/100g) and reducing sugar (61.31g/100g). All the varieties of date fruit differed non-significantly among themselves for their non- reducing sugar content. The variety Khadrawi had the highest amount of starch content. Total dietary fiber (11.70g/100g) and soluble dietary fiber (3.34g/100g) were highest in variety Hillawi. All the four varieties of date fruit differed significantly from each other for their total dietary fiber content and soluble dietary fiber content. The varieties Khadrawi (8.46%), Hillawi (8.35%) and Shamran (7.94%) had significantly (p£ 0.05) higher insoluble dietary fiber as compared to variety Medjool (4.25%). The variety Shamran had highest amount of calcium (195.33mg/100g) and zinc (1.81mg/100g). The variety Medjool contained lowest amount of calcium (70.33mg/100g), iron (1.91mg/100g) and potassium (713mg/100g) while the highest amount of phosphorus (52.66mg/100g). A non-significant (p£0.05) difference was observed in magnesium content of all the varieties. Polyphenol content of date fruits from different varieties ranged from 228.79 to 253.21 mg/100g.