Chemistry and functional properties of bioactive compounds present in Prickly pear fruits

Abstract

Prickly pear (Opuntia ficus -indica) pulp is a rich source of essential nutrients and bioactive compounds; this work aims to determine the chemical characteristics of fresh juice of Opuntia ficus-indica (yellow cultivar). Chemical and bioactive such as amino acids fatty acids, total phenols, antioxidants, and some vitamins of natural dietary fruits such as prickly pear play an essential role in human nutrition and benefit health. The prickly pear fruit is known for its high fiber, phytochemical and macronutrient as a source of food or a potential medicinal agent. Prickly pear fruit contained juice (50%), peel (275 gm.) and pulp (710gm.) for each kilogram. Prickly pear contained crude protein (7.9%), total lipids (16.8%), high fiber (47.9%), ash (3.70 %), and total carbohydrates (23.7%) on a dry weight basis. Also, prickly pear contained essential amino acids especially phenylalanine high content (1.9 g/100g) and non-essential amino acid. Results showed essential fatty acids and saturated fatty acids. Prickly pear contained β- carotene (28 µg/100gm), β-cryptoxanthin (2 µg/100gm). Prickly pear contained total phenol (94.06 mg/100g) and total antioxidant (27.63%). Prickly pear contains a high amount of vitamin A (48 IU), vitamin B complex (B1, B2, B6, and Niacin), and Vitamin C (20mg/%g). Prickly pear contained some micro minerals content such as high content of Fe(23.5 ppm ), Zn (8.3ppm) and macronutrients such as Na (1.33%), K (1.25%), Ca (0.32%), Mg (0.70%) and P (0.10%) respectively. Prickly pear had five content of minerals such as (Pb, Hg, Cr, Cd, and Cu) neglected amount. Generally, prickly pear had macronutrients, bioactive, vitamins, total phenol, antioxidant, and high nutritive as natural functional food, to improve human health. The exploitation of prickly pear juice is really a challenge our data suggest that antioxidant capacity of the juice may be involved in the anti-clastgenic effect.