Morphological and chemical analyses of mature dates related to the propagation method (traditional vegetative propagation and two different methods of in vitro multiplication) of the date palm are presented. No significant differences were seen among Bou Sthammi noire, Mejhool, Theory, and Zahidi cultivare propagated by traditional methods and by the French Group on Date Palm Research in vitro multiplication technique, based on axillary budding. These results could indicate that the vitroplants conform to mother trees. Of the five cultivare studied, only the Deglet Nour dates, obtained from callus (somatic embryogenesis), showed divergences in sugar and amino acid composition. In this case, Deglet Nour vitroplants contain no sucrose, more glutamic acid, glutamine, -amino-butyric acid, and arginine, and less alanine. We could suppose that variations were introduced by the micropropagation technique.

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In natural conditions, a cyclic growth of the apical meristem of the date palm is observed. This type of growth is also encountered in the behavior of vegetative shoots in in vitro culture, a growth stage succeeding a budding stage. Peroxidase activity is related to a cyclic budding phenomenon, where maximum enzyme activity and also a modification of isoperoxidase content are noted at the same time as the formation of buds.