Physico-chemical Evaluation of Some Introduced Date Fruits Cultivars grown under Sudanese conditions

Fatima A El-Rauof,H.D Dawoud,Islam K Saeed

doi:10.3126/ijasbt.v3i4.13996

Abstract

Fruit samples of five date cultivars, three cultivars of them were introduced from Emirates Tissue culture Laboratory-Alien Abu Dhabi and cultivated in Haj-Bashir orchard - Khartoum region were collected at the beginning of the Tamar stages. The present study was aimed to investigate the physical and chemical properties. The results showed that the physical characteristics like fruit weight, length, flesh thickness, seed weight differed significantly (P < 0.05) between the various cultivars. Chemical analysis indicated small amounts of crude fiber, crude protein, Fat and ash, while sugars predominated. In general the majority of date cultivars investigated was found to be of the soft date type characterized by the dominance of reducing sugars. The performance of introduced cultivars was well when compared with the indigenous cultivar of most physical, chemical characteristics and general evaluation.Int J Appl Sci Biotechnol, Vol 3(4): 731-736

Highlights

The fruit of the date palm (Phoenix dactylifera L), is a berry consisting of a single seed surrounded by a fibrous, parchment-like endocarp, a fleshy mesocarp and the fruit skin (Barreveld, 1993)
The long hot and dry summer with low relative humidity made Sudan an ideal location for dry and semi dry date palm production Dawoud (2006) According to Dawoud (2006), fruit growth and development passes through five stages, starting by Hubabok directly after pollination and takes 4-5 weeks
The average of date length, fruits width and length/width ratio were in the range of the findings in previous studies of saeed and Yousof. (2014), Shattir et al (2002), Sulieman et al (2007) and Sulieman et al (2012).while flesh thickness and surface area, both values were slightly higher than that reported by Sulieman et al (2012) and saeed and Yousof. (2014)

Summary

Introduction

The fruit of the date palm (Phoenix dactylifera L), is a berry consisting of a single seed surrounded by a fibrous, parchment-like endocarp, a fleshy mesocarp and the fruit skin (pericarp) (Barreveld, 1993). Aleid (2012) reported that quality profile of dates in the marketplace involves evaluating four aspects: (a) color, shape, size, taste, texture, pit/flesh ratio, and uniformity in color and size of the fruit; (b) moisture, sugar, and fiber content; (c) defects of the fruits, which may include discoloration, broken skin, sunburn, blemishes, shrivel deformity; and (d) insect infestation, foreign matter, pesticide residues, mold, and decay. Such evaluation forms the basis of “chemical,” “physical,” and “sensory” quality attributes. The variations in composition have a significant effect on their structural, sensory and textural properties (Rahman and Al-Farsi 2005)

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion