Characteristics of aqueous doum fruit extract and its utilization in some novel products

Two methods of extraction were used to choose the best procedure for preparing aqueous extract of doum fruit. The first method was by soaking the crushed doum fruit in water at a ratio of 1:5 (w/v) at ambient temperature (22 ± 2 °C) for 4, 8 and 12 h, while the second was by boiling the crushed doum fruit in water at a ratio of 1:5 (w/v) for 5, 10 and 15 min. The physic-chemical properties, total phenolic content (TPC), total flavonoid content (TFC), antioxidant activity (AA %) and phenolic, flavonoid and vitamin B compounds were determined by HPLC. The preferable extracts by the panellists were those prepared by soaking at ambient temperature (22 ± 2 °C) for 8 h and by boiling for 10 min. These two aqueous doum fruit extracts were used to prepare four products (drink syrup, jelly and concentrate). All the products were accepted by the panellists. The description of the overall acceptability by the panellists ranged between extremely acceptable and very much acceptable for all the products except the concentrate produced using the extract prepared by boiling in water for 10 min which was described as moderately acceptable.