Abstract

Date palm is a valuable fruit crop in Pakistan, renowned for its rich nutritional content and medicinal properties. Although various date palm cultivars are cultivated in Pakistan, limited information exists regarding their physicochemical characteristics and nutraceutical potential at different ripening stages. Fifteen date palm cultivars grown in Pakistan including, Aseel, Begumjangi, Burni, Gognah, Hussaini, Jansor, Kahrba, Kalakoroch, Kaloot, Kozanebad, Muzati, Rabai, Shakri, Shareefa and Zardkoroch, were characterized for their physicochemical and nutraceutical attributes at two different ripening stages (Khalal and Tamar) to explore and select suitable cultivars. The results revealed that all the date palm cultivars differed significantly at different ripening stages in their qualitative and quantitative parameters. Principal component analysis (PCA) was conducted to demonstrate the composite variability among the tested date palm cultivars for all qualitative and quantitative traits. The first two components of PCA showed collective variability of 59.3% and identified Muzati, Begumjangi, and Kahrba as the best cultivar at the Tamar stage in terms of the highest total soluble solids (81.33, 75.75 and 75.83% respectively), total phenolic content (175.94, 143.66 and 169.84% respectively) and total flavonoid content (130.11, 104.67 and 139.43% respectively). The highest values for chemical and nutraceutical attributes were found in Begumjangi and Kahrba cultivars among all the tested date palm cultivars. These findings provide useful information for customers, suppliers and the food industry in selecting date palm cultivars with higher pharmacological and nutritional value.