Antioxidant Activity of Date Seed Oils of Fifteen Varieties from Iran

In this research, extraction and antioxidant activities of the oils from 15 varieties of Iranian date seeds were investigated. Khazravi variety (13.2%) and Kaliteh variety (6.2%) had highest and lowest yields of seeds with the average of 9.5% respectively. The highest and the lowest yields of oils were related to the Shavi-shirin variety (13.2%) and Piarom variety (6.4%) with the average of 9.5% respectively. Antioxidant activities of the oils were determined with DPPH radical scavenging assays. Results showed that Shavi-talkh and Estamaran varieties had highest and lowest activities with amount of 55.5% and 5.1% respectively (with average 30.1%). It was found that the some oils significantly reduced the concentration of DPPH free radical, with an efficacy higher than that of trolox (34.0%). These results may be encouraged interest in date seed oils for use in cosmetics, pharmaceuticals and food industries.