The Date Palm (Phoenix dactylifera), a monocotyledon, belongs to the family Palmae and the genus Phoenix.
Date palm is being cultivated extensively from prehistoric times for its edible fruit.
Dates have been included as a staple food in Middle East Asia and North East Africa for thousands of years.
The Date Palm is diocious, male and female plants being separate.
The date fruit is a berry and depending upon the variety and maturity, comes in colours like bright yellow, bright red and deep blackish red.
On pollination a female date flower takes about 200 days to ripen into fruit.
Dates can be consumed both before and after drying.
Dates can also be made into syrups and chopped to make a number of sweet dishes.

Nutrients
Date fruit has high nutritional value and is high in sugar comprising up to 70% of the fruit.
Glucose and fructose are the main constituents of the sugar. Dates are poor in proteins [up to 3%]
Date fruit is very rich in essential minerals. Date fruit is a a good source of potassium, iron and calcium.
It also contains fair amount of chlorine, magnesium, copper, phosphorus and sulphur.
Dates are good sources of A and B vitamins. Dietary fibre makes up to 5% of the date fruit.

Antioxidants
Tannins which are polyphenol antioxidants constitute about 3% the dry weight of the dates. These tannins give the brown colour to the dates.
They also help in the removal of free-radicals, thereby giving immunity to our body and protection from free-radical caused diseases.

Constipation
The fairly high fibre content gives relief from constipation. These dietary fibres help in digestion, assimilation and evacuation. Date fruit also functions as a laxative.

Pregnancy
It is experimentally found that dates contain certain stimulants which help in strengthening the contractile muscles of uterine wall in last term of the pregnancy.
Dates help in the dilation of the uterus and smooth delivery of the infant with reduced bleeding.
Date fruit, because of its high iron content, is recommended for pregnant women and nursing mothers.

The seed powder of dates is used in traditional medicines. The desert population which is dependant on dates as food is found to have less cancer diseases.