ASSESSMENT OF GLYCEMIC INDEX AND CHEMICAL CHARACTERIZATION FOR FIVE EGYPTIAN DATE FRUITS VARIETY

Date palm (Phoenix dactylifera) is one of the oldest trees cultivated by human; Egypt has been ranked as the first country in the production of dates, soft, semi dry and dry date cultivars are cultivated in wide area of Egypt. Therefore, this work was carried out to determine the Glycemic Index (GI) and Glycemic Load (GL) of five Egyptian varieties of date fruit in healthy subjects. Chemical composition analysis was carried out for five types of date fruit (Partamoda, Malakabi, Saadi, Zaghluol and Samani); also, antioxidant power was determined. The study subjects were ten healthy volunteers, each subject was tested on six separate visits with 50 g of glucose and 50 g equivalent of available carbohydrates from the five date varieties. Capillary glucose was measured in the healthy subjects at 0, 30, 60 and 120 min. The GI was determined as ratios of the incremental areas under the response curves for the dates compared to glucose. Collecting data showed that Egyptian varieties of date fruit contain a good nutrients and antioxidant power. Among the five Egyptian varieties of date fruit, the chemical characteristics by moisture content in fruits was the highest in Samani date fruit and lowest in Partamoda dates; also, the five Egyptian varieties of date fruit contain available carbohydrate (7.4% - 69.2%), proteins (1.85 % - 7.0 %), total dietary fiber, TDF (11.82% - 15.63%) and Energy value (76.2 - 297.9 Kcal/100g). The antioxidant activity ranged between 52.61 and 79.12% as scavenging activity for free radicals; also, dates rich in phenols. The medium GI was recorded by Malakabi followed by Saadi and Partamoda which had high GL; while, the lowest GI was recorded for soft date fruit (Zaghluol and Samani) which had medium GL. These findings point to the potential benefits of Egyptian date fruit for healthy subjects when used in a stable healthy diet.