Abstract: Chinese red dates contain rich rutin, which could easily be damaged during processing. The changes of rutin contentwere studied in this paper. The results showed that: the rutin content had slight variation during natural sun drying; the lowtemperature and short time treatment only affected it slightly.During hot air and infra-red drying, as well as micro wavetreatment, the high temperature and long time drying, especially above 80℃, could make the rutin content fall sharply. Therutin content of red dates treated with 100℃ water was obviously lower than that of 60℃ water and 80℃ water treatment.When the pH was below 4 or above 6, the rutin content would decline rapidly. Ultraviolet treatment could increase the rutincontent.

Key words: Processing condition , Chinese red dates rutin , Change