ORIGINAL ARTICLE Effect of date varieties on physico-chemical properties, fatty acid composition, tocopherol contents, and phenolic compounds of some date seed and oils Fahad Al Juhaimi 1 | Mehmet Musa € Ozcan 2 | Oladipupu Q. Adiamo 1 | Omer N. Alsawmahi 1 | Kashif Ghafoor 1 | Elfadil E. Babiker 1 1 Department of Food Science & Nutrition, College of Food and Agricultural Sciences, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia 2 Department of Food Engineering, Faculty of Agricultural, Selcuk University, Konya, 42079, Turkey Correspondence Mehmet Musa € Ozcan, Department of Food Engineering, Faculty of Agricultural, Selcuk University, Konya 42079, Turkey. Email: mozcan@selcuk.edu.tr Funding information Deanship of Scientific Research at King Saud University, Grant/Award Number: RG-1435-049 Abstract The acid value of date seed oils were determined between 1.09 mg KOH/g (Taleese) and 1.44 mg KOH/g (Ghars). Iodine values of oil samples changed between 67.18 g I 2 /100 g (Allig) and 71.23 g I 2 /100 g (Deglet Nur) (p < .05). Oleic, linoleic, lauric, palmitic, myristic and stearic acids were the key fatty acids of date seed oils. Among fatty acids determined, oleic was the predomi- nant fatty acid (39.7–49.7), followed by lauric (9.7–24.6%), myristic (7.3–12.8%), palmitic (7.8– 14.2%), linoleic (6.2–17.3%) and stearic acids (1.3–4.9%) (p < .05). The predominant tocopherol was a-tocotrienol (31.76–37.41 mg/100 g oil), followed by Ç-tocopherol (7.61–11.84 mg/100 g), Ç-tocotrienol (4.27–8.47 mg/100 g oil), d-tocopherol (1.13–2.81 mg/100 g), and b-tocopherol (0.69–1.33 mg/100 g oil) (p < .05). While gallic acid contents of date seeds change between 2.43 (Boufgous) and 6.91 (Dore), syringic acid contents changed between 1.28 (Talees) and 4.86 (Adwi) (p < .05). In addition, catechin contents of date seeds changed between 2.86 (Dora) and 7.23 (Ghars). Practical applications Date is an important plant in some countries. Date seed is a waste product of many date products such as pitted dates, date powders, date syrup, date juice, and date confectionery. The ground and roasted seeds are used as plain or mixed with coffee. In addition, date seeds are used for animal feed in the cattle, fish, sheep, camel, and poultry industries. Also, the date and their derivatives are rich in nutraceuticals, pharmaceuticals, and medicine. 1 | INTRODUCTION Date is an important plant in some countries as North Africa, Middle East in the arid and semiarid regions in the world (Al Juhaimi et al., 2012; Al-Farsi & Lee, 2008; Besbes et al., 2004; Golshan, Solaimani, & Yasini Ardakani, 2017). The ground and roasted seeds are used as plain or mixed with coffee (Al-Farsi et al., 2007; Rahman, Kasapis, Al-Kharusi, Al-Marhubi, & Khan, 2007). Date by-products, which include low quality, hand texture, and contamination by champignons or insects are generally rejected or in some limited cases, used for ani- mal feed in the cattle, fish, sheep, camel, and poultry industries. Also, the date and their derivatives are rich in nutraceuticals, pharmaceuti- cals, and medicine (Al-Farsi et al., 2007; Besbes et al., 2009). Until now, insufficient data are available on the fatty acid, tocopherols and chemical properties of oils of severaldate varieties seed. Date seed is a waste product of many date products such as pitted dates, date powders, date syrup, date juice, and date confectionery (Rahman et al., 2007). Date palm plays an important role in the economic and social life of the people in the date producing countries (Basuni & AL-Marzooq, 2010). Date seeds contain high levels of valuable bioac- tive compounds and dietary fiber, which makes them suitable for the preparation of fiber-based foods (Hamada, Hashim, & Sharif, 2002). Many studies have been conducted on composition of the date seeds from various parts of the world. Deglet Nour and Allig cultivars, respec- tively, contained protein 5.56 and 5.17%, fat 10.19 and 12.67%, ash 1.15 and 1.12%, and total carbohydrate 83.1 and 81.0% (Besbes et al., 2004). Also Amany et al. (2012) stated that the date seed was com- posed of 3.10–7.10% moisture, 2.30–6.40% protein, 5–13.20% fat, J Food Process Preserv. 2018;e13584. https://doi.org/10.1111/jfpp.13584 wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/jfpp V C 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. | 1 of 6 Received: 16 September 2017 | Revised: 3 November 2017 | Accepted: 4 December 2017 DOI: 10.1111/jfpp.13584