Date palm (Phoenix dactylifera L.) is an important crop in arid and semiarid regions. Date palm fruits constitute the principal source of remuneration and the basis of the economy for people living in the Tunisian Sahara. Phoenix dactylifera is a member of the family Arecaceae, also known as Palmaceae. It is well known that the average weight of date seeds is about 10-15% of date weight [1]. The fruit of the date palm is composed of a fleshy pericarp and seed. The edible part of date fruit is fleshy mesocarp, which exists in-between the epicarp and hard endocarp. Mesocarp of date fruit has more than 80% sugars and the remaining 20% has dietetic fibers, protein, Pol. J. Environ. Stud. Vol. 28, No. 1 (2019), 267-274 AbstractThe seeds of 11 common dates (phoenix dactylifera L.) cultivars from the coastal oasis of Gabés, and the noble variety Deglet Nour from the oasis of Kébéli were evaluated for their chemical composition. Polyphenol, flavonoid, anthocyanin, antioxidant, and antimicrobial activity was recorded against 5 pathogen bacteria (Escherichia coli, staphylococcus aureus, staphylococcus epidermis, and Salmonella Typhinurium). The sugar content ranged between 1.20 g/100 gMS ( Bouhattam) and 3.80 g/100 gMS ( Khadhouri). The total phenolic content oscillates between 5.224 g/100 gMS (Baht) and 9.532 g/100 gMS (Khadhouri). Khadhouri also had the highest total flavonoids content (3.82 g/100 gMS). The higher antioxidant activity was found on the Khadhouri cultivar (55.47% of DPPH radical scavenging activity). It has been found that a linear relationship (p<0.01) exists between total phenolic content and inhibition percentage. Antibacterial avtivities clearly show that all the extracts showed antibacterial activity except Enterococcus feacalis. PCA revealed that the first two principal components (PC1 and PC2) accounted for 54.23% of the total variance within the data set. These two principal components separated the studied cultivars into four different groups. This by-product of date processing industries could be regarded as an excellent source of food ingredients with interesting technological functionality that could also be used in medicinal preparation as an important source of oil.

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BackgroundThe common fig (Ficus carica L.) is a gynodioecious species with two sexual forms: male trees (caprifigs) with male and female flowers and female trees that produce only female flowers that will result in the edible fig syconium. In this study the genetic diversity of 20 Tunisian accessions of caprifig is analyzed using SSR markers previously developed for this crop.ResultsThe results revealed that the 13 pairs of primers used amplified a total of 37 alleles in the accessions studied. The number of alleles per locus ranged from two to six, with a mean value of 2.85 alleles per locus. Observed and expected heterozygosities showed mean values of 0.33 and 0.29 respectively. UPGMA cluster analysis and Principal Component Analysis grouped the caprifig accessions analyzed in three groups.ConclusionThe results obtained show a low genetic diversity in the Tunisian accessions of caprifig studied and, in spite of analyzing samples from different geographic regions, no clear groupings based on geographical origin are observed suggesting widespread exchange of caprifig plant material through vegetative propagation among different areas in Tunisia.

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