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 the
diet 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 sugar
content. Date fruits have great nutritional and therapeutic value, due to the variety of elements they contain, as they contain a good
percentage 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 significant
health-promoting and disease-fighting benefits. In this review, the origin of the date palm fruits was studied, and the nutritional value
was 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 phytochemicals
was reviewed. The health benefits of date fruits include their ability to inhibit free radicals, anti-inflammatory activity, cytotoxicity on
cancer cell lines, and the applications for its use as a functional food were indicated. The exact mechanisms still need further research
and exploration, specifically, Ruthana fruits as this type of available literature showed a research gap that could be investigated