Prickly pears

Because of the special stabiHty of the hexafluoroarsenate ion, there are a number of appHcations of hexafluoroarsenates. For example, onium hexafluoroarsenates (33) have been described as photoinitiators in the hardening of epoxy resins (qv). Lithium hexafluoroarsenate [29935-35-1] has been used as an electrolyte in lithium batteries (qv). Hexafluoroarsenates, especially alkaH and alkaline-earth metal salts or substituted ammonium salts, have been reported (34) to be effective as herbicides (qv). Potassium hexafluoroarsenate [17029-22-0] has been reported (35) to be particularly effective against prickly pear. However, environmental and regulatory concerns have severely limited these appHcations. 

Indisch, a. (East) Indian. — indischer Balsam, balsam of Peru. — indische Bohne, St.-Ignatius s-bean. — indische Feige, prickly pear. — indischer Flachs, jute. — indisches GrasSl, palmarosa oil. —- indisches Rohr, rattan. — indischer Safran, turmeric. 

Carmine is a colored pigment extracted from the female insect Coccus cacti or Dactylopius coccus, or its eggs. These insects live on prickly pear cactus in Mexico. The Spanish conquistador Hernan Cortes brought the dye to Europe after seeing the Aztecs use it. 

As for anthocyanins, betalains are found in vacuoles and cytosols of plant cells. From the various natural sources of betalains, beetroot (Beta vulgaris) and prickly pear cactus (Opuntia ficus indica) are the only edible sources of these compounds. In the food industry, betalains are less commonly used as natural colorants from plant sources than anthocyanins and carotenoids, probably related to their more restricted distribution in nature. To date, red beetroot is the only betalain source exploited for use as a natural food coloring agent. The major betalain in red beetroot is betanin (or betanidin 5-0-P-glucoside). Prickly pear fruits contain mainly (purple-red) betanin and (yellow-orange) indicaxanthin and the color of these fruits is directly related to the betanin-to-indicaxanthin ratio (99 to 1, 1 to 8, and 2 to 1, respectively in white, yellow, and red fruits)." ... 

After ingestion of cactus pear fruit pulp, both betanin and indicaxanthin were found in human plasma (with AUCo i2 h values of 0.46 and 29.2 lunol/hr/mL, respectively), partly associated with LDL, and in urine (3 and 76%, respectively, of the ingested compounds)," indicating that indicaxanthin was better absorbed than betanin. The bioavailability of indicaxanthin from prickly pear fruit pulp was 20 times that of betanin, suggesting differences in the fates of the two classes of betalains (betacyanin and betaxanthins) in the human body. In rats, betanin appeared to be... 

Butera, D. et al.. Antioxidant activities of Sicilian prickly pear (Opuntia ficus indica) fruit extracts and reducing properties of its betalains betanin and indicaxanthin, J. 

Cactus pear, previously known as prickly pear, has been mainly studied for its green fleshed pads known as nopalitos. It originates from Mexico but is cultivated in Chile and Peru, mainly for cochineal production, and also in the U.S. (California and Texas), South Africa, India, Israel, and the Mediterranean, amounting to a total of 100,000 hectares under cultivation. The cactus pear fruit is a berry with many seeds and a mean weight of 160 g. Its fruit pulp covers a color range from deep purple to green. " ... 

Askar, A. and El-Samahy, S.K., Chemical composition of prickly pear fruits, Dtsch. Lebensm Rdsch., 77, 279, 1981. 

Hamdi, M., Blanc, P.J., and Goma, G., A new process for red pigment production by Monascus purpureus culture on prickly pear juice and the effect of partial oxygen pressure. Bioprocess Eng., 17, 75, 1995. 

Cactus Extract. A biodemulsifier has been developed that is based on a cactus extract, an activator for the cactus extract, and a carrier liquid. The cactus extract is made from the leaves and stems of the prickly pear or Opuntia family of cactus [1021]. The leaves and stems of the cactus are brought to a... 

Prickly pear fruit and cladodes are valued because of their high nutrient content, vitamins, and other health components (Yahia 2009a Hegwood 1990). 

Brutsch MO. 1990. Some lesser-known uses of the prickly pear < Opuntia spp.). Proceedings of Transkei and Ciskei Research Society Conference. 

Castellanos-Santiago E and Yahia EM. 2008. Identification and quantification of betalaines from the fruits of 10 Mexican prickly pear cultivars by high-performance liquid chromatography and electron spray ionization mass spectrometry. J Agric Food Chem 56 5758-5764. 

Fernandez LM, Lin ECK, Trejo A and McNamara DJ. 1992. Prickly pear (Opuntia sp.) pectin reverses low density lipoprotein receptor suppression induced by a hypercholesterolemic diet in Guinea Pigs. J Nutt 122 2330-2340. 

Fernandez-Lopez JA and Almela L. 2001. Application of high performance liquid chromatography to the characterization of the betalain pigments in prickly pear fruits. J Chromatogr 913 415 120. 

Forni E, Polesello A, Montefiori D and Maestrelli A. 1992. A high performance liquid chromatographic analysis of the pigments of blood-red prickly pear (Opuntia ficus-indica). J Chromatogr 593 177-183. 

Frati, A. 1992. Medical implication of prickly pear cactus. In Felker P and Moss JR, editors. Proceedings of the Third Annual Texas Prickly Pear Council, pp. 29—34. Kingsville, TX. 

HegwoodDA. 1990. Human health discoveries with Opuntktsp. (prickly pear). Hort Sci 25(12) 1515-1516. 

Yahia EM. 2009a. Prickly pear. Chapter 13. In Rees D, Farrell G, Orchard JE, editors. Crop Postharvest Science and Technology, Volume 3. Oxford Wiley-Blackwell. In press. 

The cyclic voltammetry method has been used for testing fruit and vegetable samples including Iryanthera juruensis fruits (Silva and others 2001), prickly pear (Butera and others 2002), orange juice (Sousa and others 2004), and wine (Roginsky and others 2006). 

RP-HPLC has been applied for the determination of betalain pigments in various plants too. The researches were motivated by the commercial importance of betalain pigments as natural food colourants. An RP-HPLC method was developed for the measurement of betalain pigments in prickly pear (Opuntia ficus-indica) fruits. 

The chemical structures of betanin and indicaxanthin found in the prickly pear are depicted in Fig. 2.150. Pigments were extracted by homogenizing fresh fruit flesh with methanol (1 5, w/v). The suspension was fdtered and the liquid phase was applied for spectrophotometry and RP-HPLC. Liquid chromatographic separation was performed in an ODS column (250 X 4.6 mm i.d. particle size 5 pan) at ambient temperature. Gradient elution started with 1 per cent aqueous acetic acid and changed to 12 per cent solvent B in... 

Fig. 2.151. Left HPLC chromatograms of betalain pigments from reddish purple prickly pear fruits. Right HPLC chromatograms of betalain pigments from yellow purple prickly pear fruits. Peaks 1 = indicaxanthin 2 = betanin. Reprinted with permission from J. A. Femandez-Lopez et al. [324].

Gurrieri, S. Miceli, L. Lanza, C. M. Tomaselli, E Bonomo, R. R Rizzarelli, E. Chemical Characterization of Sicilian Prickly Pear (Opuntia ficus indicd) and Perspectives for the Storage of Its Juice. J. Agric. Food Chem. 2000, 48, 5424-5431. 

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