Fatty acid profiling and bioactive potential of date palm (Phoenix dactylifera) seed oil: antioxidant, antimicrobial, and α-glucosidase inhibitory activities

Date palm (Phoenix dactylifera) seed oil (DPSO) remains a valuable food oil resource rich in polyphenolics, especially used for the prevention of oxidative-stress-induced ailments. Thus, the aim of this work was to explore the fatty acids composition, antioxidant, antibacterial and antifungal activities, and α-glucosidase inhibitory effect of DPSO from “Barhi” cultivar (BDPSO). The fatty acid profiling carried out by GC–MS/MS revealed the predominance of SAFA accounting for 50.24% with major components were lauric acid methyl ester at 15.97%, followed by palmitic acid, methyl ester at 13.46%, and myristic acid methyl ester at 13.00%, and MUFA (40.33%) with oleic acid at 38.75%achieved the highest content, while the lowest amount was obtained with PUFA, at 8.73% allowed to linoleic acid methyl ester. The total phenolic (TPC) and total flavonoid (TFC) contents were performed and were 158.24 mg GAE/100 g and 35.76 mg QE/100 g, respectively. The antioxidant was evaluated using DPPH and ABTS assays, and taken IC50 values of 318.33 ± 14.5 µg/mL and 746.42 ± 27.9 µg/mL, respectively, which were lower than the standard, BHT. BDPSO exhibited potent to moderate antimicrobial activity against some pathogenic strains with MIC values in the range of 1.56–12.5 mg/mL and the highest inhibitory activity was found with S. aureus, followed by B. subtilis and E. coli, respectively. Moreover, BDPSO also displayed good anti-α-glucosidase activity with IC50 value of 125.4 ± 5.6 µg/mL. In conclusion, BDPSO could be an important source of bioactive molecules, for therapeutic and nutraceutical applications.