The Uses of the Date Palm Tree - Research Proposal Example

The uses of the date palm are also discussed under: food uses, environmental uses, economic provision, and commercial uses. Before the conclusion, the paper features a case study on an experiment done to find out about the nutritive value of red palm oil which is a product of the date palm tree. The case study is presented under the headings: experimental aim-justification and objectives, materials and methods, results, and discussion.Date Palm is a palm tree that produces fruits. The fruit from the date palm tree is approximately 54 % and 7% protein.

Dates are used in making pastes, jams, cooking, and table fruit. The date palm is very important to the people's Middle East Region, Gulf Countries, and in the United Arab Emirates. These people use their leaves for making baskets and ropes and the trunk produces timber for building and wood for fuel. The sap is used for making alcoholic beverages (Manickavasagan, Essa ‎& Sukumar, 2012). The trunk of the tree is slender and can grow to a maximum height of between 70 and 100 feet. There are normally no branches on the trunk but the top has a stiff crown with leaves shaped like feathers.

The largest producers of dates are Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and Egypt.  There are other major produces in North Africa and the Middle East (Manickavasagan, et al, 2012). It grows as single stems or in clumps with many stems growing from one root system. Its leaves grow to a height of between 4 and 6 meters long and the pinnate and petioles have spines. The leaflets are about 150 in number with each of them growing to 30 cm long and 2cm in width. The crown can be between 6 and 10 meters (Riegar 2006).

Dates have between 20 and 70 calories each although this is determined by variety and size. The name of the species dactylifera meaning “date bearing” is derived from the Ancient Greek word daktulos meaning date or finger. For so many years, the people of the Indus Valley and the Middle East have been using dates as their staple food. The cultivation of dates is believed to have started in ancient times in Mesopotamia and around 4000 BCE (Nasrallr 2011).