Today's Edition
AL AIN (WAM)
A research team at the United Arab Emirates University (UAEU), in collaboration with the Aspire Research Institute for Food Security in the Drylands, has developed an innovative herbal tea prepared from young date palm sprouts and green (immature) date fruits.
The research aims to transform secondary products of date palm cultivation into value-added food ingredients.
Green date fruits are routinely removed during fruit thinning to improve yield and fruit quality, while young sprouts are obtained from germinating date seeds.
By utilizing these underused agricultural by-products, the researchers have developed a novel herbal tea that demonstrates the potential to create sustainable, value-added food products from existing date palm resources.
Under the supervision of Dr. Elke Gabriel, Associate Professor at the College of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine, and Post-doctoral researcher Dr. Affan Muhammad Baig, the graduate students Salama Al Kaabi and Selma Zakkariya explore how even the earliest stages of the date palm’s life cycle can provide new opportunities for healthy and sustainable food products.
The team is testing blends of sprouts and green fruits from different date palm cultivars and evaluating how processing methods such as roasting, grinding, or freeze-drying influence flavor and chemical composition. The resulting beverages are analysed for their sensory properties and naturally occurring bioactive compounds to identify combinations with desirable taste and potential health-promoting characteristics.
The date sprout tea was recently presented at a UAEU exhibition on innovations in the date palm sector, where visitors were invited to learn about the concept and try the beverage firsthand.
The researchers emphasize that the product is currently in a developmental stage and that further studies are required to fully characterize its composition and reveal its commercial potential.
