Phenolics, Betalains, Ascorbic Acid, and Antioxidant Activity of Opuntia ficus-indica

摘要

Prickly pear is a fruit of the genus Opuntia, which belongs to the Cactaceae family and could be an important source of phenolics, ascorbic acid and betalains. These compounds have showed antioxidant capacity, also an anti-allergenic, anti-inflammatory, anti-carcinogenic and cardio-protective activity. Mexico possesses a huge genetic variability of prickly pear and is the main producer of this fruit. In Puebla are harvested approximately 41,672 ton/year of prickly pear, making of this region one of the most important producers or prickly pear, because of that, the following work evaluated the content of total phenolics (TP), betalains, ascorbic acid (AA) and antioxidant activity (AOX) of commercial varieties obtained from this location, which have not been studied. Rind of the Green Villanueva type, presented the highest concentrations of TP and AOX, 126 mg GAE/100 g and 39.3 μmol TE/g, respectively. However, the juice of the San Martín type showed high contents of betaxantins (17.7 mg indicaxanthin equivalents /100 g), betacyanins (26.7 mg betanin equivalents/100 g) and AA (58.2 mg/100 g). Rind of prickly pear should not be thrown away due to the high contents of functional compounds present, mainly TP; because it could be an important material that can offer better health benefits to the consumer.