Comparison of the essential oil content and composition of the spathe, buds and pollen of Phoenix dactylifera.

Several medicinal applications have been reported for different components of date palm. The inflorescence of the male date tree is composed of spathe that surrounds many buds containing pollen. In this study, a comparison between the content and composition of the essential oils obtained from these three components of an inflorescence was made. After obtaining each oil using hydro-distillation method, the oil yield was measured as the weight ratio of the oil to the distilled sample (w/w %) and the chemical composition of the oil was determined by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry analysis. It was observed that the pollen possessed the most oil content (1.47%) composed of 68.04% oleic acid, whereas the content of this fatty acid in the spathe and bud oils was found to be less than 0.05% and 5.65%, respectively. Spathe oil was dominated by 3,4-dimethoxytoluene (52.90%) while the main constituent of the bud oil was trans-caryophyllene (44.20%).