Nutritional Value of Doum Fruits (Hyphaene thebaica) and Their Suitability for Production of Ready-to-Use Concentrated Drink

Abstract

The main goals of this research were to study the nutritional value of Doum fruits and their suitability for production of ready – to – use concentrated drink. The results indicated that Doum fruits contains high percentages of dry matter (96.69 %), total carbohydrates (84.87 %), total sugars (29.39 %), crude fiber (22.36%) and low percentages of protein (3.44%) and fat (1.14 %), on dry matter basis. Also, the fruits containing high percentages of potassium (171.60 mg), calcium (336.40 mg), magnesium (131.35 mg), sodium (153.92 mg) and iron (168.87 mg) per 100g dry matter. After the dcortication process, the available carbohydrates, total sugars, non-reducing sugars and ash were significantly (P ≤ 0.05) increased by (12.89 %), (8.40 %), (4.80 %) and (38.20 %) respectively (on dry weight basis).While, the total carbohydrates and crude fiber were significantly (P ≤ 0.05) decreased by (1.30 %) and (40.88 %) respectively on dry weight basis. In addition to that, contents of potassium, phosphorous, sodium, magnesium and manganese in Doum fruits were also significantly (P ≤ 0.05) increased by 4.63%, 72.06 %, 27.04 %, 5.33 %, and 24.22 %, respectively on dry basis.

On the other hand, the crushed fruits pulp was found to be easily extracted after soaking for only two hours in (100˚ C) at a ratio of (1:8) with reasonable total soluble solids (8.5 %), hydrogen ions concentration (5.04) and yield (47.89%) compared to a cold extraction method used in this study for 16 hours at the same fruit: water ratio (1: 8).

Finally, the recipe and the processing method used in this study for production of Doum fruits concentrate were found to produce a satisfactory product with reasonable total soluble solids (55 %), titrable acidity (0.60 %), hydrogen ions concentration (3.86) and colour ( 3.7˚ red __ 33.7˚ yellow). Also, the product was found to contain appreciable amounts of sodium (163.71 ppm), phosphorous (96.87 ppm), calcium (66.35 ppm), potassium (61.95 ppm), magnesium (22.45 ppm) and iron (20.73 ppm). Moreover, the product was highly accepted by the panelists with respect to its taste, flavour, colour, appearance and over-all quality.