Sweet, chewy dates provide healthful antioxidants—mostly the kind known as phenolics. But the levels of these compounds vary according to what variety of date you're eating, ARS and University of California-Davis scientists have found.
Deglet Noor dates, the leading commercial variety in the United States, logged a higher antioxidant score than five other types of dates grown in California, the nation's leading producer of this exotic crop.
Other ARS-led research yielded new insights into the genetic diversity of date trees safeguarded in a unique collection that ARS curates—the Riverside, Calif.-based National Clonal Germplasm Repository for Citrus and Dates.
