Yes, you can do that in several ways:
d = {'01/01/2012','02/01/2012','03/01/2012','04/01/2012','05/01/2012'};
1st method using datetick with serial dates (I recommend this)
dnum = datenum(d,'dd/mm/yyyy');
plot(dnum, 1:5);
datetick('x','dd/mm/yyyy')
2nd method manually set ticks
plot(1:5)
set(gca,'Xtick',1:5,'XtickL',d)