Phenolic profiling and antibacterial potential of Saudi Arabian native date palm (Phoenix dactylifera) cultivars

Date Palm (Phoenix dactylifera) is one of the important fruit enriched with an impressive list of essential nutrients and a wide range of phenolic compounds with high antibacterial compounds. In order to provide further detailed information on phenolic compounds and antibacterial activities of Date Palm (Phoenix dactylifera), the current study was devoted to investigate and compare three different highly consumable varieties of date palm (Phoenix dactylifera) cultivars, namely Ajwa, Khalas Alkharj, and Al-Qasim for their broad spectrum antibacterial effect and phenolic compounds. The antibacterial properties of their methanolic extracts were evaluated against Streptococcus pnuemoniae, Bacillus subtilis, Klebsiella pneumonia, Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli. All of the three cultivars displayed a broad spectrum of inhibitory effect against these pathogenic bacteria. Moverover, the LC- Linear Ion Quadrupole Mass Spectrometric Analysis (LC-MS and LC-MS/MS Tandem Mass Spectrometry) analysis revealed the presence of 3,30-di-O-methyl ellagic acid, 7-Methoxyquercetin-O-hexose isomers, caffeic acid, ferulic acid, isomers of quercentin-rutinoside, kaempferol methylether, p hydroxybenzoic acid, phytol, punicalagin and quercetin-3-O-glucoside (isoquercitrin) were in Ajwa, 3,30-di-O-methyl ellagic acid isomers, 3,30-di-O-methyl ellagic acid, caffeic acid derivative, cafeic acid, caffeoyl glucose, caffeoylshikimic acid, ferulic acid, guaiacyl(8-5)ferulic acid hexoside isomer, isorhamnetin-3-Ohexoside, oxooctadecanoic acid, punicalagin and quercetin derivativein Al-Qasim extracts while 2(3,4-Dihydroxyphenyl)-7-hydroxy-5-benzene propanoic acid isomer, 2(3,4-Dihydroxyphenyl)-7-hydroxy-5-benzene propanoic acid, decanoic acid derivative, diosmetin, kaempferol-3-rutinoside, linolenic acid, oxooctadecanoic acid conjugate and punicalagin in the extract of Khalas date. The findings of the current study may increase our knowledge about the importance of dates in diet and can be utilized as natural antimicrobial agents in the foods industry.