Background: Dates (Phoenix dactylifera L.) var. Ajwa is the one of favorite fruit of Rasulullah SAW. Dates (Phoenix dactylifera L.) var.Ajwa has many benefits for the health of humans and contains various nutrients among others macronutrients and micronutrients. Macronutrient content such as carbohydrates, protein, lipid. Micronutrient content such as zinc, magnesium, iron, magnesium, sodium, etc. Dates (Phoenix dactylifera L.) var. Ajwa also contains phytochemicals as phenolic and flavonoid. Phenolic and flavonoids act as antioxidants. For this reason, dates (Phoenix dactylifera L.) var. Ajwa can be functional food that can increase the health of humans.
Objective: This study aims to know about physical characters, total phenolic content, and antioxidant activity in dates (Phoenix dactylifera L.) var. Ajwa.
Method: in the screening early potency of dates (Phoenix dactylifera L.) var. Ajwa as functional food such as physical characters consist of size with vernier calipers and weight with analytical scale, total phenolic content was tested using the colorimetric method, antioxidant activity using the DPPH method.
Results: testing the physical characteristics of size show results for length 3.4120±0.1532 cm; for width 2.1620±0.1716 cm; for thickness 0.5540±0.0875 cm and weight test show result for whole fruit 11.5712±1.0816730 gr; for flesh 2.4213±1.1024 gr; and seeds 1.2688±0.1753 gr, the total phenolic test of 10.1778±0.9776 mg GAE g extract, for testing the antioxidant activity of date extract (Phoenix dactylifera L.) is 2.31095 mg/L.
Conclusion: dates(Phoenix dactylifera L.) have the potential to be a functional food with high antioxidants.