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The Specialty of Dates

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Dates (Phoenix dactylifera) tree is a fruit that is very familiar to the society, especially for Muslim. They generally consume dates especially in the Holy Month of Ramadhan. The tree is the kind of palm that grows and bears fruit in the Arab countries, Iraq and its surroundings. Many of them are found in the desert (dry) and can reach a height of 3035 meters, starting to flower after the age of 616 years, there are two types of males and females with a larger flower shape for males. Oval fruits with a size of 2-7.5 cm with varying colors between dark brown, reddish, light yellow and seedy. Date palm fruit contains the following substances sugar (a mixture of glucose, sucrose, and fructose), protein, fat, fiber, vitamins A, B1, B2, B12, C, potassium, calcium, iron, chlorine, copper, magnesium, sulfur, phosphorus, and several enzymes that can play a role in healing various diseases (Rahmawan, 2006). Juice of dates is commonly used to reduce the risk of spontaneous bleeding by shorting the bleeding time, for example on hemorrhargic fever and the consequence of consuming certain drugs (e.g. aspirin, anti coagulant, anti cancer, diuretic, etc). In the animal study conducted by Sari et al (2013), the juice of dates affects the bleeding time of male Wistar strain rats that induced by aspirin. According to Giyatmo (2013), giving date juice is effective in increasing blood platelet levels in patients with dengue hemorrhagic fever at the Bunda Hospital, Purwokerto. In other study conducted by Al-Kuran et al (2011), it is concluded that the consumption of date fruit in the last 4 weeks before labour significantly reduced the need for induction and augmentation of labour, and produced a more favourable, but non-significant, delivery outcome.

References:

Al-Kuran O, Al-Mehaisen L, Bawadi H, Beitawi S, Amarin Z. 2011. The effect of late pregnancy consumption on date fruit on labour and delivery. J Obstet Gynaecol. 2011;31(1):29-31. doi: 10.3109/01443615.2010.522267

Giyatmo. 2013. Eefektifitas pemberian jus kurma dalam meningkatkan trombosit pada pasien demam berdarah dengue di RSU Bunda Purwokerto. Jurnal Keperawatan Soedirman (The Soedirman Journal of Nursing), Volume 8, No.1, Maret 2013

Rahmawan Z. 2006. Kupas Tuntas Kurma Berdasarkan Al-Quran, AsSunah Ash-Shahihah dan Tinjauan Medis Modern. Penerbit Media Tarbiyah, Bogor

Sari, RP. Sampurna, Pertiwi, D. 2013. The effect of dates juice on the bleeding time an experimental study of male wistar strain rats that induced by aspirin. Sains Medika, Vol. 5, No. 1, Januari – Juni 2013 : 20-22