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nafex - Re: [NAFEX] Fwd: New Focus on an Old Fruit

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  • From: Nate <nrhora@gmail.com>
  • To: "North American Fruit Explorers" <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Fwd: New Focus on an Old Fruit
  • Date: Tue, 11 Jul 2006 08:51:11 -0700

Interesting piece:

Dates being an important aspect/staple in various cultures, with their
ripen fruit being added to cuisine daily; ensures the survivability of
civilizations for generations to come. Though their native climate is
not in the americas, still shows how nature (in general) can climatize
in different environments, and somehow flourish.

On 7/11/06, Lon J. Rombough <lonrom@hevanet.com> wrote:



Begin forwarded message:

From: ARS News Service <NewsService@ars.usda.gov>
Date: July 11, 2006 6:34:07 AM PDT
To: ARS News subscriber <lonrom@hevanet.com>
Subject: New Focus on an Old Fruit
Reply-To: ARS News Service <NewsService@ars.usda.gov>

STORY LEAD:
A Bright Future for an Ancient Fruit
___________________________________________

ARS News Service
Agricultural Research Service, USDA
Erin Peabody, (301) 504-1624, ekpeabody@ars.usda.gov
July 11, 2006
--View this report online, plus any included photos or other images, at
www.ars.usda.gov/is/pr
___________________________________________

Maybe it's their dried-out skins, wrinkled from months spent in the
sun. Or their lackluster brown hues, lost among the bright reds,
yellows and oranges of the produce aisle. Whatever it is, dates aren't
exactly flying off U.S. grocery store shelves.

But Robert Krueger, a scientist with the Agricultural Research Service
(ARS) in Riverside, Calif., thinks we should take a cue from Middle
Eastern cuisine and open our eyes, and stomachs, to these dazzling
little gems.

With the help of University of California (UC) colleagues, the ARS
horticulturalist recently uncovered new information about the date
palm, including findings on the tree's origins, its current state of
diversity and how its impressive levels of antioxidants vary by
cultivar.

Researchers have known for a while that dates are top-scorers in terms
of their phenolic compound content. Also found in red wine, phenolic
compounds are powerful antioxidants, capable of shielding our bodies'
delicate cellular machinery from the everyday assault of harmful free
radicals.

Krueger, who works at the ARS National Clonal Germplasm Repository for
Citrus and Dates, and UC-Davis colleagues ran antioxidant tests on six
dates commonly grown in California. It turns out that the Deglet Noor
date--the kind most likely to be eaten by Americans--was their best
performer.

Krueger, with Egyptian researcher Ashraf El-Assar and UC-Riverside
researchers led by Thomas Chao, recently completed an extensive
evaluation of the genetic diversity of date palms in Egypt. Egypt is
the world's largest supplier of dates, having grown them since about
3200 B.C.

The scientists found that while there's much diversity among Egyptian
date palms, the country's date industry may want to round out its
cultivated date groves with other, genetically different cultivars.
Plant diversification guards against potential disease threats and
habitat loss.

This research has important implications for the future of the date
industry--and date palm diversity--which is centered in the Middle
East.

Read more about the research in the July 2006 issue of Agricultural
Research magazine, available online at:
http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/AR/archive/jul06/dates0706.htm

ARS is the U.S. Department of Agriculture's chief scientific research
agency.
___________________________________________

* This is one of the news reports that ARS Information distributes to
subscribers on weekdays.
* Start, stop or change an e-mail subscription at
www.ars.usda.gov/is/pr/subscribe.htm
* NewsService@ars.usda.gov | www.ars.usda.gov/news
* Phone (301) 504-1638 | fax (301) 504-1486




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