Phoenix dactylifera (date palm) produces edible, sweet fruits. The fruits has been mentioned multiple times in Quran as a super food, for its nutritious and numerous medicinal properties. Phoenix dactylifera fruit has been served as a staple food for millions of people around the world since ancient times. Despite the availability of reports on Phoenix dactylifera fruit, robust documentation regarding energy metabolism of dates is still inadequate. Consequently, date palm is hardly recognized as an energy rich food. This systematic review aims to study the beneficial effects of Phoenix dactylifera fruits and its components on energy metabolism in vivo. Published relevant articles were searched in four electronically indexed databases-Science Direct, Ebscohost, Biomed Central, and PubMed without any language or publication status restriction from January 1997 to 2015. Bibliographies of screened studies, relevant reviews and manuscripts were also searched using Google Scholar. Data were reported in the form of a descriptive summary followed by systematic reviews, according to the PRISMA guidelines. There were only three articles included in the qualitative synthesis and discussed the effects of Phoenix dactylifera on energy metabolism. All articles focused on animal studies. This systematic review identified several articles that reported the effect of Phoenix dactylifera on the energy content. Date palm pulp was reported to contain high valuable nutritive values and can be a potential animal feed. Phoenix dactylifera was also shown to have similar energy content compared to a standard animal feed (corn grain) therefore, it also can be an alternative energy source for livestock. The study reported on energy mechanism pathways of Phoenix dactylifera remained inconclusive. In addition, there are still gaps. Hence, further studies are required to provide a comprehensive understanding on this matter. � 2017 American Scientific Publishers All rights reserved.

Background: Iron deficiency anaemia is one of the most prevalent nutritional deficiencies in the world which indicates poor nutrition and health. It is characterized by the reduction or absence of serum iron as well as iron stores in the body. Supplementation of calcium rich diet such as animals’ milk is known to have inhibitory effect on iron bioavailability. However, recent studies have found that goat’s milk does not only increase iron bioavailability in iron deficiency anaemia but also minimized the interference of iron absorption. This systematic review aims to evaluate the potential of goat’s milk as a treatment for iron deficiency anaemia. Methods: The search was conducted for relevant articles published in four electronic indexed databases namely Medline, Ovid, Scopus, and PubMed. Relevant reviews, manuscripts and bibliographies of screened studies were searched using Google search engine. Data reporting involved systematic reviews and report of the study according to PRISMA guidelines. Results: A total of eight articles were found to meet the inclusion criteria. It was reported that iron deficient rats treated with goat’s milk showed increased hemoglobin regeneration efficiencies. This was evidenced by increased serum haemoglobin, red blood cell count, packed cell volume, haematocrit and mean cell volume. The DMT-1 receptor in the small intestine was also up-regulated indicating induction of erythropoiesis. These findings were more significant with whole goat’s milk than skim powdered goat’s milk. In iron deficient subjects treated with iron therapy, iron bioavailability was not affected with goat’s milk supplementation whereas it was significantly low with cow’s milk. The serum iron, ferritin, hepcidin levels as well as iron stores in liver, spleen and bone marrow were improved when treated with goat’s milk. In normal rats, iron stores were reduced in the group treated with cow’s milk and high calcium diet but not in the group supplemented with goat’s milk and high calcium diet. Conclusion: This review identified several reports on the beneficial effect of goat milk in iron deficiency anaemia. The findings support the hypothesis that goat’s milk is beneficial in iron deficiency anaemia. The diet of iron deficient subjects is recommended to include goat’s milk as the hemoglobin regeneration efficiencies as well as the iron store are increased. It was also noted that goat’s milk did not interfere with iron absorption and it improves the metabolism and digestion of calcium.