ABSTRACT
The date palm (Phoenix dactylifera L.) belongs to the Arecaceae or Palmae family and Phoenix is the genus name of 17 palm species (Burnie et al., 2006), and more than 600 varieties are available in the world (Ahmed et al., 1995; Zaid, 1999). It is native to the Canary Islands, Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of Northeast Africa. The world production of dates has increased from about 4.6 million tonnes in 1994 to 6.9 million tonnes in 2004 and expectations are that their cultivation will continue to increase (Al-Farsi and Lee, 2008). This indicates that the consumption and demand for dates are increasing every year, and the production of dates is also increased to meet the increasing demands. The date palm starts to produce fruits at an average age of 5 years, and continues production with an average yield of 400-600 kg/tree/year for up to 60 years (Shinwari, 1993; Al-Shahib and Marshall, 2003). It yields date fruit, which is composed of an edible ¨eshy pericarp and the seed. The food products produced from date fruits are pitted dates, date powder, date syrup, chocolate-coated dates, date confectionery, and so on.
