Antioxidant and Anticlastogenic Capacity of Prickly Pear Juice

Abstract

Plants belonging to the genus Opuntia spp. are the most abundant of the Cactaceae family, grown throughout America and the Mediterranean central area. Its fruit, known as cactus pear or prickly pear, is an oval berry grouped in different colors. Some studies have shown its antioxidant activities which may help in preventing chronic pathologies such as diabetes. The purpose of the study was to evaluate the antioxidant capacity of three varieties of prickly pear juice (red-purple, white-green and yellow-orange) in five different concentrations (100, 250, 500, 750, and 1000 mg/mL) by DPPH (1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl radical) colorimetric method, selecting the best variety to determine its anticlastogenic potential against methyl methanesulfonate (MMS). The results indicate that the highest antioxidant was found in the juice of the prickly pear red-purple variety (PPRP), in all concentrations. Its anticlastogenic potential was therefore evaluated with a micronucleus assay. The experiment was run over two weeks. A negative control was included along with a positive control with MMS (40 mg/kg), a group of mice treated with PPRP (25 mL/kg), and three groups with PPRP (in doses of 25, 16.5 and 8.3 mL/kg) plus the mutagen. The PPRP was administered daily by oral gavage and the MMS was injected intraperitoneally five days prior to the end of the experiment. Blood samples were obtained at 0, 24, 48, 72 and 96 h in order to determine the frequency of micronucleated polychromatic erythrocytes (MNPE). The results indicated that PPRP is not a genotoxic agent, on the contrary, it may reduce the number of MNPE. In this regard, the PPRP showed an anticlastogenic effect directly proportional to its concentrations. Thus, the highest protection was obtained with a concentration of 25 mL/kg after 48 h of treatment.

Effects of Cactus Fiber on the Excretion of Dietary Fat in Healthy Subjects: A Double Blind, Randomized, Placebo-Controlled, Crossover Clinical Investigation

“…The fruit (prickly pear or cactus pear) and the pad (cladode) of the cactus are common ingredients in Mexican cuisine. Besides culinary use, prickly pear fruit has been traditionally used in the management of ulcer, dyspnea, glaucoma, liver conditions, wounds, and fatigue 16 . The Opuntia genus is also widely used by Pima Indians for treatment of diabetes and hyperlipidemia.…”

Hepatoprotective Effect of Opuntia robusta and Opuntia streptacantha Fruits against Acetaminophen-Induced Acute Liver Damage

“…The juice of each batch of peeled fruits was extracted and mixed in a single procedure using a Braun J500 juice extractor (Braun GmbH, Taunus, Germany). The collected juice of each batch was aliquoted into 50-mL dark tubes, centrifuged at 5000 rpm for 15 min at 4 °C, filtered through Whatman 40 filter paper (8-μm pore size), stored at −80 °C and lyophilized in a Labconco FreeZone Freeze Dry System (Labconco Corp, Kansas City, MO, USA) [26,28]. Extracts of one batch were used for the entire study.…”

“…These fruits have been used in traditional medicine for the treatment of several diseases [20] and contain a wide variety of trace elements, sugars and other bioactive compounds, such as betalains, carotenoids, ascorbic acid, flavonoids and other phenolic compounds [21]. Cactus pear fruits are now recognized as a rich source of nutritional compounds with health-promoting activities, including antioxidant [22,23,24,25,26], neuroprotective, anti-inflammatory, cardioprotective, anti-diabetic [27], anti-clastogenic [28] and anti-genotoxic actions [16]. In addition, they have protective effects on erythrocyte membranes [29] and on acute gastric lesions [30], and they improve platelet function [31] and cancer chemoprevention [18].…”

Avaliação da atividade antibacteriana, citotóxica e antioxidante da espécie vegetal Opuntia cochenillifera (L.) Mill

“…Na espectroscopia de IV das frações do cladódio grande, a fração hexânica (Ver figura 2A) apresentou estiramento axial forte de 2922-2852 cm -1 , sugestivo de alcanos (C n H n+2 ) na amostra; (Semedo 2012;Madrigal-Santillán et al, 2013;Butera et al, 2002), no entanto no presente estudo, a espécie não apresentou atividade antioxidante, corroborando com dados encontrados na literatura referente ao estudo de Souza et al (2014). Mesmo que comprovada a existência de fenóis em uma quantidade moderada, outros compostos podem ter mascarado os compostos fenólicos, fazendo com que a atividade não fosse identificada.…”

“…Estudos realizados com o gênero Opuntia comprovam a atividade cicatrizante (Park & Chun, 2001;Galati et al, 2003;Trombetta et al, 2006;Ammar et al, 2015), antioxidante (Butera et al, 2002;Semedo, 2012;Madrigal-Santillán et al, 2013), antinflamatória (Arauza, 2009;Galati et al, 2003) e antitumoral (Zou et al, 2005;Hahm et al, 2010;Poejo, 2011).…”