Date seed oil

Dates Phoenix dactylifera L.) are popular in most Middle Eastern countries and serve as a major source of food and nutrients (51, 52). Oil contents and fatty acid profiles of date seeds may vary among individual varieties. Date seeds contained 20-24% total fat (49). Oleic acid was the primary fatty acid in the date seed oil and had a concentration of 43.5 5% of total fatty acids. This was followed by lauric (12 0), myristic (14 0), palmitic (16 0), linoleic (18 2n6), capric (10 0), and stearic (18 0) acids along with trace amounts of other fatty acids (Table 7). Date seed oil may serve as an excellent dietary source of oleic acid with a minor amount of linoleic acid. 

Date seed oil is semi-solid at 5°C with an iodine value of 48-58. The most abundant fatty acids are oleic (41-44%) and lauric (19-24%) followed by m5ristic (9-12%), palmitic (8-19%) and linoleic (12-15%) (Table 7.8). Because the date seeds are available at no cost, the investment in a small scale extraction plant may be feasible and worth while (Devshony et al., 1992). 

Compared to other commonly consumed vegetable oils, date seed oil has a relatively lower degree of unsaturation and a low level of linoleic acid. Despite this, date seed oil has a good potential for use in human and/or animal diets. 

The meal obtained from the date pits was reported to have nutritional qualities better than many cereal grains and comparable to that of soybean protein. Tryptophan was the limiting amino acid. Sawaya et al. (1984) concluded that further animal experiments are needed to determine the safe use of date seed oil in human and/or animal diets as well as optimum levels of date seeds in animal feed. 

Kalra, A., Parameswaran, T.N., Ravindra, N.S., Rao, M.C. and Kumar, S. (2000) Effects of planting date and dinocap applications on the control of powdery mildew and yields of seed and seed oil in coriander. Journal of Agricultural Science 1 35(2), 1 93-1 97. 

Glycyrrhiga glabra (Fabaceae), Salix sp. (willow) (Salicaceae) [flower] animals Oestriol isolated by Edward Doisy (USA) (Nobel Prize, Medicine, 1943, with Henrik Dam, Vitamin K) Phoenix dactylfera (date palm) (Palmae) [pollen, seed], fea mays (Poaceae) [seed oil],... 

Mango, Cherry, Date, and Fluted pumpkin stand for mango, cherry, date, and fluted pumpkin seed oil, respectively. Carob bean germ stands for carob bean germ oil. Numbers correspond to the references cited, nd stands for not detected. 

DGATl is the only enzyme proven to contribute to seed oil synthesis to date. Soybeans, Euphorbia, and Vernonia have at least two DGATls. DGATl but not... 

The two most common naturally occurring c/s docosenoic acids are erucic acid (c/s 22 1 n-9) found in the seed oil of the Brassica family and ceto-leic acid (c/s 22 1 n-11) found mainly in marine oils (Ackman et ai, 1971a). The cetoleic acid in fish oils is derived by oxidation of the corresponding alcohol present in small Crustacea which form part of the food chain for marine life (Nenenzel, 1970 Pascal and Ackman, 1976). To date, no longterm studies have been reported in which these two docosenoic fatty acids were fed in purified form. When a comparison was made between a HEAR... 

The Food and Drug Directorate of the Department of National FHealth and Welfare in Ottawa first expressed concern about the erucic acid in FHEAR oils in 1956. The Department initially decided to remove the oil from the food chain, but then eased this restriction when the Canadian Committee on Fats and Oils reported that, based on available evidence, the use of rape-seed oil with its then rather limited use, was no hazard to human health. The committee however urged an expansion of research in this area (Reynolds, 1975). It was from 1956 on that a serious research effort was initiated in Canada in order to produce low erucic acid cultivars of rapeseed and to amass data on the potential biological hazards of erucic acid in the food chain. Within 4 years from this date the world s first cultivar of rapeseed with a low erucic acid content was grown (Stefansson et ai, 1961). 

Indian date. See Tamarind (Tamarindus indica) Indian dill seed oil. See Dill (Anethum sowa) seed oil... 

The seed represents about 10% of the fruit weight. Four cultivars in Israel were analyzed for their organic and inorganic constituents. The following ranges in values were obtained on the four cultivars on a dry weight basis oil (7.9-8.4%), protein (5.3-5.8%), ash (0.5-1.7%) and crude fiber (15.1-17.3%). The low protein content and the high fiber content will seriously limit the use of the defatted date seed meal for feeds if not supplemented (Devshony et al., 1992). 

Devshony, S., Eteshola, E. and Shani, A. (1992) Characteristics and some potential applications of date palm Phoenix dactylifera L.) seeds and seed oil. J. Am. Oil Chem. Soc. 69, 595-597. 

In order to avoid the problems of weak signals from typical solid samples, all NMR/MRI signals from granular particles to date have been obtained with solid particles containing liquids. The majority of experiments have been done either with seeds that naturally contain oils, predominantly mustard seeds, or pharmaceutical pills that contain liquid cores. In some cases, however, solid beads were impregnated with liquid to make them NMR-visible. In one case, it was oil-soaked sugar particles [12], while in another, acetone was imbibed into catalytic materials... 

Nutrition research on winged bean has mainly focused upon the tough, mature seed, which is rich in protein and oil. The seeds are occasionally consumed in Indonesia and Papua NewGuinea (59, 60). A survey of 240 winged bean accessions from 16 countries showed that the protein and oil contents range between 20.7-45.9% and 7.2-21.5% respectively (13). Studies on the evaluation of seed flour as an alternative feed source for livestock has only recently begun. The two most commonly used plant protein sources in broiler (chicken) diets to date have been soybean and peanut cake (62). 

These are largely stored in the seeds of vegetables. Olive, corn, cotton, sunflower, soybean, sesame, peanut, hazelnut, dates, almonds and coconuts are the main sources of vegetable oils. 

---