IBTIKAR USIM | DISEMBER 2018

The essence of health for humans is to survive on nutritious food. Of all the prophetic foods, only dates or Phoenix dactylifera and milk are frequently mentioned in the Quran and hadith as “al-Atyaban” (wholesome, nourishing, beneficial) or the ultimate and complete foods for survival. In view of the significance of this study, comprehensive and detailed data were systematically collected from the hadith, significant books of commentary, references written on the Islamic medicine and scientific findings. By applying textual analysis method, the study found that the Prophet used to combine fresh dates with either watermelon or cucumber with dried dates and butter. about dates consumption, majority (42.3%) of them (Muslim and non-Muslim) disagree that dates consumption is only for the Muslims. As for the goat milk, when given dates in combination with goat milk as ice-cream, more than half (60.6%) of the respondents like the taste of the product. The findings of our study clearly demonstrate that there is strong correlation between attitude, social influence and self-efficacy on goat milk purchasing intention. We also found that the partial mediation effect of neophobia traits of the consumer also has obtained partial mediation effect in the relationship between attitude, social influence and self-efficacy and goat milk purchasing intention. We conclude that multi- ethnic Malaysia who consume dates are majority Muslim Malays while goat milk are consumed by all races. The current evidences from this study suggest that both date and goat milk offer many potential benefits to most clinical systems. The date pit is low in protein and oil but with high fibre content. It has good source of potassium followed by magnesium, calcium and natrium. Important contents include ferum, manganese, zinc and copper. Phytochemicals that rich in dates pulp are like phenolics, sterols, carotenoids, anthocyanins, procyanidins and flavonoids. Flavonoids that detected in Ajwa dates are quercetin, apigenin and luteolin. Active compounds isolated from hot extract of date fruits identified as catechin 7,4’-dimethyl ether, hexa-acetyl-pyracanthoside, luteolin 7, 3’,4’-trigluconide, kaempferol 3-2'',3''-diacetyl- 4''-p-coumarylrhamnoside, and cyanidin 3- rutinoside-5-glucoside showed antimicrobial activity against Vibrio cholera, Shigella flexneri and Salmonella tyhimurium. A systematic review of Malay manuscripts was conducted to delineate traditional medicinal practices for four common illnesses found in the ‘bottom billion’ of the world’s population namely worm infestation, gastroenteritis, fatigue and anaemia. Traditional medicinal prescriptions were obtained from 80 Malay manuscripts and commonly used ingredients were nutmeg, black seed, garlic and others. Few treatments used prophetic food ingredients such as date palm and goat’s milk. Malay traditional medicines draw mainly on local wisdom and ingredients, with enrichment from Islamic medicinal practices. Our study found out that majority of Muslims (48.8%) consume dates during Iftar and Sahur during Ramadan (fasting month). Outside Ramadan, only one-third (33.9%) of them consume dates. About half of our respondents (46.8%) never/ rarely consume goat milk. When multi-ethnicity Malaysian were asked ……… 23 BULETIN PENYELIDIKAN DAN INOVASI