Ajwa dates come from Madinah in Saudi Arabia. They are small, roundish and near-black, with finely wrinkled skin and a soft bite. In Malaysia they are also sold as “Kurma Nabi”. An older version of this page promised five benefits from eating Ajwa and linked them to Ayurvedic remedies, but it never quoted an Ayurvedic text or a study. This version takes the claims one at a time and checks each against the hadith on sunnah.com and the research indexed on PubMed.
This page is general information, not medical advice. If you have a health condition, talk to your doctor before using any food as a remedy.
What the hadith actually says about Ajwa
The old text said that traditional Islamic medicine books credit Ajwa with preventing heat exhaustion. The verified hadith say something different. In Sahih al-Bukhari 5445, narrated by Sa’d, Allah’s Messenger (ﷺ) said: “He who eats seven ‘Ajwa dates every morning, will not be affected by poison or magic on the day he eats them.” In Sahih Muslim 2048, ‘A’isha reported him as saying: “The ‘ajwa’ dates of ‘Aliya’ contain healing effects and these are antidote in the early morning.”
Neither hadith mentions heat exhaustion, so that claim has been removed. The hadith are a matter of faith. The studies below are a separate question.
Claim 1: Ajwa is good for the heart because of its cholesterol
The old page said Ajwa naturally contains 0.3% cholesterol. One USDA FoodData Central record for Ajwa is a branded US product, “AJWA AL MEDINA DATES” (FDC 2659689), listed by the Bard Valley Medjool Date Growers Association in 2023. It lists 0 mg of cholesterol.
The only Ajwa trial in people with high cholesterol used the stone, not the fruit. In a 2023 randomised clinical trial, 40 patients aged 30 to 50 with total cholesterol above 200 mg/dl, triglycerides above 150 mg/dl and a BMI over 25 all took a prescribed statin. Twenty also took 2.7 g of Ajwa date pit powder each day for 40 days, and twenty took the same amount of wheat flour. The pit powder group had significantly lower body weight, BMI, total cholesterol and LDL than the control group. The authors conclude that the powder may have the potential to improve dyslipidemia and obesity. The stone is not the part people eat, so this trial says nothing about the fruit itself.
Claim 2: Ajwa fights free radicals
The old text said Ajwa is an antioxidant because it is rich in potassium and magnesium. No source was given for that, and it has been removed. What has been tested is the polyphenols. A 2021 laboratory study extracted polyphenols from four Saudi cultivars: Ajwa, Safawi, Khalas and Sukkary. Ajwa and Sukkary had the highest polyphenol content, and the extracts showed anti-radical activity and acted against three bacteria and two fungi in the lab. That was done on extracts in the laboratory, not on people eating dates.
Claim 3: Ajwa supports the immune system
Here there are studies in people, though they are small. A nonrandomized controlled trial at King Abdulaziz University Hospital in Jeddah followed pediatric cancer patients admitted between 2008 and 2017. Of 56 included, 26 agreed to take Ajwa and 30 served as controls. The Ajwa group had significantly fewer infections and fewer hospital admissions for fever-associated neutropenia, and a better survival rate. Patients chose whether to take Ajwa rather than being randomised, so the two groups may have differed in other ways.
Two trials from Hasanuddin University in Indonesia gave seven Ajwa dates a day for 8 weeks to people with schizophrenia who were also taking risperidone. In the randomised one, 44 participants were analysed. The Ajwa group ended with higher quality-of-life scores (69.3 vs 66.8) and lower levels of TNF-α, an inflammation marker (86.8 vs 134.5 pg/mL), than the group on risperidone alone. In the second study, a quasi-experimental design with 60 subjects, IL-1β fell in both groups but fell more in the Ajwa group. Both studies tested Ajwa next to a medicine in one illness. They do not show what Ajwa does for the immune system of a healthy person.
Claim 4: Ajwa vitamins improve digestion and cut colon cancer risk
The old text said Ajwa is rich in vitamins B, C and E and lowers the risk of colonic cancer. That FDC Ajwa record lists 13 values, and none of them is a B vitamin, vitamin C or vitamin E, so those vitamin claims have no source and are gone. What the record does give, per 100 g, is 875 mg of potassium and 7.5 g of fibre. Its label serving is 2 dates, or 40 g.
On the colon, a PubMed search (21 October 2026) for Ajwa with colon, colorectal or colonic returns one paper. It is a 2022 experiment on rats, four groups of six, in which an Ajwa fruit extract reduced colon damage caused by an injected dose of the drug diclofenac. It is not a cancer study, and it is not a study in people.
Claim 5: Ajwa prevents ulcers and ulcerative colitis
The old text said Ajwa protects against stress, ulcers and ulcerative colitis by strengthening the mucus lining of the stomach. A PubMed search for Ajwa with colitis returns no studies, and a search for Ajwa with ulcers returns none either. That section has been removed. The lines about Ajwa making the body alkaline and flushing out toxins had no source either, and they are gone too.
What is left after checking
The hadith on eating seven Ajwa in the morning is recorded in Sahih al-Bukhari 5445 and, in the words of ‘Amir b. Sa’d, in Sahih Muslim 2047b: “He who ate seven ‘ajwa’ dates in the morning, poison and magic will not harm him on that day.” On health, the human studies covered here are small: one on infections in children with cancer, two on inflammation markers in schizophrenia patients on medicine, and one on the date stone, not the fruit. There is also a 2019 Indonesian trial that gave seven Ajwa dates a day for 8 weeks to 30 pregnant women at risk of preeclampsia, with 10 controls, and reported lower mean arterial pressure. None of them tested Ajwa in healthy people, and none supports a list of five guaranteed benefits. If you buy Ajwa dates to follow the hadith of eating seven in the morning, that reason stands on its own.
Kurma Murah supplies dates from retail purchases to wholesale, delivered across Malaysia; the About us page has the details. Questions, quotes and orders go through WhatsApp, listed on the Contact us page.
References
- Sahih al-Bukhari 5445, Book 70, Hadith 74. sunnah.com/bukhari:5445
- Sahih Muslim 2048, Book 36, Hadith 215. sunnah.com/muslim:2048
- Sahih Muslim 2047b, Book 36, Hadith 213. sunnah.com/muslim:2047b
- Nasrullah PR, et al. Effect of Ajwa date pits powder (Phoenix dactylifera L.) on body composition, lipid profile and blood pressure in patients with hyperlipidemia: A randomized clinical trial. Avicenna J Phytomed. 2023;13(2):143-152. PMID 37333476
- Al-Tamimi A, Alfarhan A, Rajagopal R. Antimicrobial and anti-biofilm activities of polyphenols extracted from different Saudi Arabian date cultivars against human pathogens. J Infect Public Health. 2021;14(12):1783-1787. PMID 34756515
- Al Jaouni SK, et al. Effects of Phoenix dactylifera Ajwa on Infection, Hospitalization, and Survival Among Pediatric Cancer Patients in a University Hospital: A Nonrandomized Controlled Trial. Integr Cancer Ther. 2019;18:1534735419828834. PMID 30791734
- Rismayanti, et al. Effect of Ajwa dates on quality of life and serum tumour necrosis factor-alpha levels in patients with schizophrenia treated with risperidone: a randomised controlled study. East Asian Arch Psychiatry. 2025;35(1):11-15. PMID 40170205
- Syamsuddin S, et al. Effect of Ajwa dates adjuvant therapy on improvement of clinical symptoms and serum interleukin-1β (IL-1β) levels in schizophrenia patients. Riv Psichiatr. 2025;60(5):202-213. PMID 41070421
- Royani I, As’ad S, Mappaware NA, Hatta M, Rabia. Effect of Ajwa Dates Consumption to Inhibit the Progression of Preeclampsia Threats on Mean Arterial Pressure and Roll-Over Test. Biomed Res Int. 2019;2019:2917895. PMID 31886194
- Hassan SMA, et al. The Preventive and Therapeutic Effects of Ajwa Date Fruit Extract Against Acute Diclofenac Toxicity-Induced Colopathy: An Experimental Study. Drug Des Devel Ther. 2022;16:2601-2616. PMID 35965961
- USDA FoodData Central (Branded, 2023). AJWA AL MEDINA DATES, FDC 2659689