الفهرس | Only 14 pages are availabe for public view |
Abstract Dates from the date palm tree are popular among the population of the Middle Eastern countries, providing a stable food for millions of people in arid and semiarid regions of the world. The world production of dates has increased from about 4.6 million tons in 1994 to 7.2 million tons in 2009 (FAO 2010). Date seeds, also called stones or pits, form part of the integral date fruit, which is composed of a fleshy pericarp and seed that constitutes between 10% and 15% of the date fruits weight, depending on the variety and quality (Hussein.,1998); thus approximately 825000 tons of date pits are produced annually (FAO 2009). |