Abstract
The aim of the study was to determine the chemical composition of dates from 10 types of palm cultivated in Saudi Arabia (Phoenix dactylifera L.) to assess their nutritive (crude protein, crude fat and ash) and amino acid composition. The dates were rich in sugar (71.2–81.4% dry weight), while ash represented 1.68–3.94%; they contained low concentrations of protein and lipid (1.72–4.73% and 0.12–0.72%, respectively). The predominant mineral was potassium, and the main sugars were glucose and fructose. They contained high concentrations of aspartic acid, proline, alanine, glycine, valine and leucine; low concentrations of threonine, serine, isoleucine, tyrosine, arginine, phenylalanine and lysine and very low concentrations of methionine and histidine. These results show that dates are nutritious and can play a major role in human nutrition and health.