Volume 4 • Issue 12 • 1000285 J Food Process Technol ISSN: 2157-7110 JFPT, an open access journal Open Access Research Article Saleh and Otaibi, J Food Process Technol 2013, 4:12 DOI: 10.4172/2157-7110.1000285 *Corresponding author: Saleh FA,Department of Food and Nutrition Sciences, College of Agriculture and Food Science, King Faisal University, Saudi Arabia, Tel: 0096635895756; Email: farag_ali@hotmail.com Received November 10, 2013; Accepted December 09, 2013; Published December 30, 2013 Citation: Saleh FA, Otaibi MM (2013) Antibacterial Activity of Date Palm (PhoenixDectyliferaL.) Fruit at Different Ripening Stages. J Food Process Technol 4: 285. doi:10.4172/2157-7110.1000285 Copyright: © 2013 Saleh FA, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Abstract In vitro and in situ antibacterial activity of aqueous, ethanol, and ether extracts of three varieties of palm date (Khulase, Sheshi and Rezaz) in different maturation stages (Biser, Rutab and Tamer) were evaluated against some food borne pathogens. Gram positive bacteria showed higher sensitive against most extracts than Gram negative bacteria. Among the Gram positive bacteria, Listeria monocytogenesATCC 7644 and Staphylococcus saprophyticus ATCC 15305 recorded highest sensitive against most extracts. The ethanol followed by water extracts of Biser stage had a stronger antibacterial activity than other maturation stage for all varieties against Staphylococcus saprophyticus ATCC 15305. The results of Minimum Inhibitory Concentration (MIC) shows that Staphylococcus saprophyticus was very sensitive to the lowest concentration of ethanol extract of Rezaz variety at Biser stage (RBOH), (MIC, and 3.75 mg/ml). RBOH was able to reduce the count of Staphylococcus saprophyticus in minced meat by above of 1 log cycle during storage at 5°C. This extracts (RBOH) contained highest amount of phenolics (2035.3 mg/100g) compared to other extracts. Antibacterial Activity of Date Palm (PhoenixDectyliferaL.) Fruit at Different Ripening Stages Saleh FA* and Otaibi MM Department of Food and Nutrition Sciences, College of Agriculture and Food Science, King Faisal University, Saudi Arabia Keywords: Date palm; Date varieties; Date ripening stages; Antibacterial activity; Food borne pathogens Introduction Elevation of pathogenic bacterial contamination is one of the challenge factors which still cause food deterioration and serious diseases to humans around the world. Food borne illnesses are still a major concern for consumers, the food industry and food safety authorities. Meanwhile, consumers have been questioning the safety of synthetic preservatives of food. In recent decades an increasing tendency towards the use of natural substances instead of the synthetic ones has been observed. As the synthetic materials and products are more complex in comparison to natural substances, it will take a long time for them to complete their natural cycles and return to natural; thus causing a lot of environmental pollution. Also with the increase in the price of raw materials, the problem of cost benefts for chemical production is becoming more considerable. Food antimicrobials are the added or presented compounds in foods that hinder microbial growth or kill microorganisms. Te functions of food antimicrobials are to inhibit or inactivate spoilage and pathogenic microorganisms. Tese functions have increased in importance in the past 10–15 years as food processors search for more and better tools to improve food safety especially those depending on the use of natural derivatives as antimicrobial agents [1]. Dates (Phoenixdectylifera L.) are an important nutritional source for many countries of the world, because the dates containing diferent nutrients such as carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals. From pollination to fnal date-fruit ripening takes 200 days. Date palm fowering and fruiting were recognized to have distinct stages over the ripening period. Hababauk, female fowers and immediate post-pollination period when the very young fruits are creamy white in color; Biser, sometimes named Kimri, green fruit undergoing rapid growth; Khalal, fruit grows slowly to full size, sugar content increasing while moisture content decreases, hard, glossy, red or yellow in color; Rutab, fruits ripening to a sof stage, brown in color; Tamar, fruits fully ripened, wrinkled, brown or black in color. All of the dates in diferent ripening stages containing various qualitative and quantitative amount of phytochemicals. In recent decades an increasing tendency towards the use of natural substances as food additive instead of the synthetic ones has been observed. Natural phytochemicals, such as phenolic compounds, which extracted from many types of plants, are gaining importance that adds to foods, due to their benefts for human health, showed best antioxidant activity[2-9]. In addition to antioxidant activity, several studies demonstrated the antibacterial activity of phenols and/or phenolic extracts [2-9,10-13]. Besides nutritional values, dates are rich in phenolic and phytochemical components which changes during ripening stage [14-19] and may possessing antimicrobial activity. Several studies have been done on the antioxidant activity of dates [20-23,15,17,18] but the literature review are poor about studies on the antibacterial activity of dates. Tus, the purpose of the present investigation was to investigate the antibacterial activity of dates ether, ethanol, and water extracts in diferent ripening stages against some Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria in vitro and in situ (in food) in order to establish their biological activity for value. Materials and Methods Palm date Tree varieties of palm date (Khulase, Sheshi and Rezaz) were collected during maturation stages (Biser, Rutab and Tamer) during June to November, 2012, from Private El Ghanem farm. Date samples were dried directly afer collection in under vacuum oven at 50°C, milled and freezing storage until analysis. Journal of Food Processing & Technology J o u r n a l o f F o o d P r o c e s s i n g & T e c h n o l o g y ISSN: 2157-7110