Original Research Article
Year: 2017 | Month: January-March | Volume: 2 | Issue: 1 | Pages: 15-20
Antibacterial Activity and Nutritional Content of Fresh and Dried Date Fruits (Phoenix Dactylifera) L
Muhammad Murtala Mainasara1,2, Shuaibu Babaji Sanusi2, Hassan Muhammad Maishanu1, Tawakkaltu Ismail1
1Department of Biological Sciences, Usmanu Danfodio University, Sokoto, Nigeria
2Faculty of Science, Technology and Human Development, Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia, 86400 Parit Raja, Batu Pahat, Johor, Malaysia
Corresponding Author: Shuaibu Babaji Sanusi
ABSTRACT
The study was aimed to compare the antibacterial activity and nutritional content of fresh and dry date fruits. The antibacterial activity was examined using disc diffusion assay. While the nutritional content was examined using proximate analysis for carbohydrate, ash contents and moisture content, nitrogen, crude protein, crude fibres and lipid; and mineral composition was evaluated using the standard Association of Analytical Chemists (A.O.A.C) methods. The extract showed higher activity against S. aureus in both fresh and dried date fruit extract with the inhibition zone of 17 and 15 mm respectively. While the extracts were less active against E. coli with 11 and 9 mm zones of inhibition of fresh and dried date fruit extract respectively. The result of the proximate composition showed that the fresh fruit contained higher values in the carbohydrate (95.00%), ash contents (3.30%) and moisture content (68.50%) than the dried date palm fruit with (92.02%), (0.50%) and (5.00%) respectively. On the other hand, the dried date Palm fruit also showed higher value in the crude protein (4.30%) and nitrogen (0.69%) than the fresh fruit with 1.14% and 0.18% respectively. It has also been shown that the fresh fruit contained higher concentration of sodium (3.50%), phosphorus (0.61%) and potassium (0.61%), while that of the dried fruit contained high value in magnesium (0.07%) content, and both contained same value of calcium (0.04%).
Keywords: Antibacterial activity, Phoenix dactylifera, disc diffusion assay, proximate analysis, zone of inhibition.