* To whom all correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: asthubiani@uqu.edu.sa JOURNAL OF PURE AND APPLIED MICROBIOLOGY, Dec. 2017. Vol. 11(4), p. 1675-1686 The Prebiotic Properties of Date Palm (Phoenix dactylifera L.) Seeds in Stimulating Probiotic Lactobacillus Abdullah Safar Al-Thubiani 1 * and Mohd Sajjad Ahmad Khan 2 1 Biology Department, Faculty of Applied Science, Umm Al Qura University, Makkah, Saudi Arabia. 2 Department of Biology, College of Medicine, College of Medicine, Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University, Dammam, 31451 Saudi Arabia. http://dx.doi.org/10.22207/JPAM.11.4.05 (Received: 10 August 2017; accepted: 26 September 2017) Date seeds/ kernels are currently used in the feeding of animals such as cattle, sheep, and camel, and in the poultry and fish industries as well. Due to the presence of a large quantity of total dietary fibre they are considered to have potential health benefits for human as prebiotics. The present study was aimed to investigate the effects of the date palm (Phoenix dactylifera L.) seed products in the form of (i) the finely ground date seeds powder (FGDSP) and (ii) the aqueous extract of date seed powder (AEDSP) on the growth of the lactic acid bacteria (LAB) Lactobacillus paracasei ssp paracasei as probiotics. Subsequently, to investigate the prebiotic properties of the date palm (Phoenix dactylifera L.) seed product i.e dietary fibre concentrate (DFC) in stimulating the growth of the probiotic. The total numbers of bacterial populations at 0, 24, 48, 72 and 96 h of fermentation were checked for each sample during the fermentation period. The data obtained clearly demonstrated that both the form of test date palm (Phoenix dactylifera L.) viz. FGDSP and AEDSP could be used as a carbon source for bacterial fermentations. The DFC presented the potential to be applied as a novel source of prebiotics, by increasing the population of Lactobacillus paracasei ssp paracasei as probiotics in addition to decreasing the pH values. This research proposed that date seeds could potentially be utilized as a starting material to manufacture functional food ingredients especially as they are a common waste product, especially in Middle Eastern countries. Hence, further investigations should be carried out to identify active biological molecules in date seeds and their potential application in encouraging the growth of probiotics and other health benefits. Keywords: Dietary fibre, Lactobacillus paracasei, Phoenix dactylifera, probiotic. Probiotics are defined as “live microorganisms which when administered in adequate amounts confer a health benefit on the host” (FAO/WHO 2002). The most common probiotics are lactic acid bacteria (LAB) especially Lactobacilli and Bifidobacteria spp which are usually used in fermented products like dairy products. Prebiotics are defined as “nondigestible food ingredients that beneficially affect the host by selectively stimulating the growth and/or activity of one or a limited number of health promoting bacteria in the colon, and thus improving the host’s health” (1). Food products containing probiotics and prebiotics in which prebiotics selectively favours probiotics are termed as synbiotics. All of these have been investigated for their properties by food scientists to support their claim of inclusion in functional food (1) with relation to health promotion or disease prevention. Consequently, one of the current challenges in nutrition sciences is improving gut health, using the concept of functional foods as a health promoting tool.