Abstract
Author(s): GOURCHALA Freha1 and HENCHIRI Cherif a2*
The present study had the objective of evaluating the quality of two dates derived from two varieties of date palms,Ghars and Tamesrit, by the determination of physicochemical and biochemical characteristics and the effect of their consumption on blood glucose and lipid profile. The results obtained showed that both dates have morphological and physicochemical characteristics ranging from acceptable to good characters showing their commercial value. The phytochemical study showed their richness in Alkaloids, Polyphenols, Tannins, Flavonoids and Coumarins with different amounts depending on the variety. Tamesrit and Ghars have proved their richness in phenolic compounds, but the rate of total polyphenols was significantly higher (p <0.05) in the variety Tamesrit compared to Ghars with an antioxidant activity of 900 mg for Tamesrit and 600 mg expressed by EAA / 100 g Gharsextract. Biochemical composition revealed that Ghars and Tamesrit are also rich in fiber and have water content between 21 and 26 %, values classifying them in the semi-soft to soft category, the amount of reducing sugars is important in both cultivars, the glucose content is higher in the variety Ghars whereas sucrose is absent in Tamesrit. The effect of dates on blood glucose showed that only the variety Tamesrit had a significative decrease on blood glucose (p <0.01). Concerning lipid profile, we noted that Ghars variety induced no significant variation of different lipid parameters while the variety Tamesrit reduced the LDLc level (bad cholesterol), thus improving the lipid profile.