Most people eat the fruit and throw the stone away. Researchers have spent years looking at that stone, and the amazing benefits of dates palm seeds turn out to be practical ones that have to do with food, drink, feed and oil. Every date carries one, whether it is a small Madinah Ajwa or one of the soft Iranian Mazafati Dates from Bam in Kerman province.
What a date seed is made of
A 2022 review in the journal Biomolecules describes date seeds as a by-product of the date processing industry. According to that review, the seeds contain carbohydrates, oil, dietary fibre and protein. They also hold phenolic compounds, a group of plant chemicals whose possible effects the review says are still being studied.
The mix is not the same in every seed because the variety matters.
A 2025 study in Scientific Reports profiled roasted seeds from 12 Egyptian date cultivars. It found Khalas seed the most nutritive of the group, enriched in sugars and fatty acids. The authors suggest that this kind of profiling can show which cultivars are worth using for food.
Roasted date seed as a coffee substitute
One use is as a drink. A 2019 paper in Metabolomics notes that date pits, usually treated as waste, are roasted and used as a coffee substitute. The same team also measured how roasting changes what is in the pit.
The same 2025 study of Egyptian seeds also looked at what gives roasted date seed its smell.
It identified 65 aroma compounds in roasted seeds. Anethole was the most abundant of them, reported at 9.1 to 23.3 percent. Barhi seed stood out, and the authors of the Scientific Reports paper pick out several compounds in it that are likely to give a fine aroma and flavour.
Feed, oil and cosmetics
Not every seed is thrown out. The Biomolecules review notes that date seeds are used to feed farm animals. A 2023 study from King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in Saudi Arabia lists their traditional uses as animal feed, seed oil production, cosmetics and a coffee substitute.
Researchers also look at the seed as a food ingredient. The Biomolecules review calls date seeds suitable for food product formulation and covers their use both as a powder and as an oil. In the Middle Eastern countries where the date palm is a key crop, that turns a waste stone into a second product.
What the research does not show
You will find pages online making strong health claims for date seeds. We do not repeat them here. The KAUST team tested seed and fruit extracts in the lab, and in Natural Products and Bioprospecting the authors call their own assays a starting point for more advanced models. A lab result on an extract does not show what happens when a person eats or drinks date seed. This page is general information and not medical advice, so ask a doctor before using any food to treat a health condition.
Start with the fruit
The seed only comes after someone has enjoyed the date around it. You can see the varieties on offer in the Green Diamond shop or go straight to the Mazafati date page. Mazafati is dark and very soft, and it is cold-stored, so it is available all year. To find out who is behind this blog, read about Green Diamond.