Date Palm Industrial Benefits and Secondary Metabolites Production by Biotechnology Approach

Abstract

Abstract. Date palm (Phoenix dactylifera L.), commonly grown in the hot arid zones predominantly in the Middle East and North Africa, became one of the highly important cultivated palms around the world, because of the multiple processing utilization of the edible fruit, and the various industry- uses of the whole tree parts. Moreover, there are intensive studies indicated the higher nutraceutical value of the essential biological compounds in the date palm tissues like (carotenoids, phenols, lignin, flavonoids, tannins and sterols) and their therapeutic aspects, such as antioxidants (lutein, β-carotene and vitamin A), antibacterial (syringic acid, vanillic acid and gallic acid), antifungal (tannic acid) and anti-cancer (quercetin) and anti-sterility (β-sitosterol and stigmasterol). Meanwhile, the biotechnology approach provides the production possibilities of the plants' secondary metabolites, using cell suspension cultures and the scale-up by bioreactors. Also, using the biotic and abiotic elicitors as important factors inducing bioactive compounds accumulation in plants tissue cultures. This review describes the progress in studying the in vitro production of some important secondary metabolites from the date palm tissues.