Family Cactaceae is characteristic of the plant with prickly pear which has been considered as a source of fiber. The fruit of the genus Opuntia is of much greater value economically used to some extent as forage. It is also cultivated for its edible fruits. Opuntia tuna is wildly growing in Egypt and is also cultivated for their edible uses (W att and Brandwijk, 1962). Opuntia tuna was subjected to chemical investigation in this work for the first time. W e report here on the flavonoids of the flowers and the mucilage and the betalaines of the fruits. Isolation and purification processes were carried out by applying successive chromatographic techniques (column chromatography, TLC, PPC and HPLC). Identification of the isolated compounds was carried out by spectroscopic analysis (UV, MS, H-NMR 1 and C-NMR). Quantitation of betalaines was established by TLC densitometry. The isolated flavonoids 13 were identified as isorhamnetin (I), isorhamnetin-3-O-glucoside (II) and isorhamnetin-3-Orhamnoglucoside (Rizk and Nowaihi; 1989) (III). The mucilage study revealed the presence of L-rhamnose, L-arabinose, D-galactose, fructose D-glucuronic acid and D-galacturonic acid (Norma et al, 1987). Indicathanthin, betanin and isobetanin were identified .
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