Nutritional composition of the fruit of the Nigerian wild date palm, Phoenix dactylifera.

Abstract

Chemical compositions of fruit of dates were analysed. The value of carbohydrate, protein, moisture content, fibre, ash and fat were 65.00%, 17.09%, 64.34%, 12.55%, 9.8% and 9.61 respectively. The most abundant mineral was zinc with the value of 74.82 ppm and the least magnesium with value 1.00 ppm. All these quality food properties make it good source of sweetening agent in food processing industry.