Review of scientific and technical bibliography on the use of Opuntia spp. as forage and its animal validation

To identify production and trends on publications of cactus pear from 1900 to 2015 at aninternational level, a review of qualitatively and quantitatively indexed bibliographicrecords from Science Citation Index Expanded (SCIE) and Social Sciences Citation Index(SCIE) was conducted. The analyses included the concepts or key words ‘opuntia’ as wellas the common names of cactus pear and its variants. It was found that there were 1,472documents regarding cactus pear, from which 50% were published during the last tenyears, and more than 81% after 1990; these data show the relevance and dynamism ofcactus pear research during the last years. The most indexed type of document was thearticle with 86.1%. The preferred language of publication was English with 92.7%. TheInstitutions with more indexed documents were the university system of the University ofCalifornia and the National Autonomous University of Mexico with 99 (6.7%) and 84(5.7%) respectively. The Journal of the Professional Association for Cactus Development(JPACD) had the highest number of scientific articles (92). The impact factor (IF) ofJPACD is 0.22, and is ranked 30 among 33 in the “Horticulture” category of the Journal ofCitation Reports (JCR). Plant Physiology the journal with the highest IF (6.28) published29 of the indexed documents. The main research areas where scientists publishaccording to SCIE and SCCI are: Plant Sciences, Food Science Technology,Environmental Sciences, Horticulture, Ecology, Applied Chemistry, and Biochemistry andMolecular Biology. Mexico and the United States published 50% of all production, butTunisia, Brazil, France and South Korea had an important number of contributions onOpuntia. The main native English authors speaking with more published documents inmainstream journals are Nobel and Felker, while Saenz and Murillo-Amador are the mainnative Spanish speaking authors. The trending research in the last ten years are thefunctional properties and biological activity of active ingredients on Opuntia. The identifiedtrends would allow setting strategies, synergies and scientific and technologic policies forresearch and decision making in those countries where the species is considered asimportant.

Section: Bibliometric Indicators Number Of Documents Publishedcontrasting

confidence: 56%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Production and trends of scientific research on cactus pear in mainstream journals

Bravo-Vinaja¹,

Méndez-Gallegos²

2016

“…According with Grünwaldt et al (2015) Mexico, together with Brazil, Ethiopia, Tunisia and United States have made an important contribution of studies regarding the use of Opuntia in animal production. Recent studies in Brazil and Mexico showed that the addition of cactus pear in diets for small ruminants is useful as supplement feedstuff, as it reduces feed cost without reducing the production and quality of meat and milk.…”

Section: Liveweight Gainmentioning

confidence: 99%

Quality of fermented cactus pear (Opuntia spp.) and its effect on liveweight gain of Dorper lambs

Flores-Hernández¹,

Macías-Rodríguez²,

Herrera³

et al. 2020

The high-water (85%) and low protein (5%) content of cactus cladodes (Opuntia spp.) reduce the amount of dry-matter consumed by ruminants. The objective of this study was to use protein enrichment technology to increase Opuntia protein content and to feed Dorper lambs, comparing the Opuntia protein enrichment and the basal diet in the liveweight gain. The experiment was carried out for 60 days, using a biodigester (100 kg of cactus) -Title No. 2641- IMPI. The process was based on the daily aerobic semisolid fermentation of Opuntia by applying yeast of the Sacharomyces cereviceae (1%) type, urea (1%) and ammonium sulfate (0.1%) during 20 h (1 h of movement and 1.5 h of rest) recycling the yeast for a week. Unfermented Opuntia cladodes were used as the control. The enriched Opuntia was provided in the final stage in two treatments in a completely randomized design with three replications: 1) Basal diet (control), and 2) Basal diet + fermented fresh Opuntia. The liveweight of each animal was recorded weekly. Analysis of variance and comparison of means were performed (Tukey HSD p=0.05 and orthogonal contrasts p?0.05). The results of the fermentation showed that fermented Opuntia significantly (p?0.01) decrease carbohydrates content (48.9 to 26.4%); increased crude protein content (5.64 to 33.17%) and energy (2.26 to 2.67 Mcal kg-1) compared with unfermented Opuntia. However, on the seventh day of fermentation, these values decreased significantly, because of the temperature decrease. At the end of the experiment, the live-weight increased significantly 11.62 ± 0.99 kg animal-1 month-1 in groups of four lambs fed with enriched Opuntia, while the liveweight of animals fed with the basal diet only increased 8.42 ± 1.69 kg animal-1 month-1, showing a difference in the liveweight gain of 800 g lamb-1 week-1 fed with fermented Opuntia cladodes.

“…Cactus plants comprise succulent botanically articulated stems called nopal pads or cladodes composed of polysaccharides that allow the plant to retain water. Cladodes of nopal are of substantial commercial value as human food and cattle feed (Grünwaldt et al, 2015). However, nopal cacti have other value-added uses, such as being sources of ingredients for cosmetics and pharmaceuticals, being substitutes for flour, and in the production of biofuels (El-Mostafa et al, 2014).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Comparison of total polyphenol content, antioxidant activity, and antimicrobial potential among nine cactus pear (Opuntia spp.) cultivars and their by-products

Dávila-Aviña¹,

Gallegos-Ruiz²,

García³

et al. 2018

Nopal cacti (Opuntia spp.) are important natural resources in semi-arid zones throughout theworld, where their fruits and stems are used as forage or human food depending on the varietyand ripeness of the cladode. Members of the genus Opuntia show variable phytochemicalcomposition as well as a high capacity for adaptation to extreme environmental conditions. Onepart of the process to prepare and use of “nopalitos” for human consumption includes removalof modified leaves or thorns, which is approximately 20% of the fresh weight of cladodes isconsidered as a by-product (production residue). The objective of this study was to evaluatethe phytochemical composition, antioxidant capacity, and antibacterial potential of cladodesand cladode by-products from nine nopal cultivars. Young cladodes (<1 month, nopalitos) andtheir corresponding by-products were washed, dried, and macerated in ethanol. Ethanolextracts were isolated by evaporation and resuspended in water. Total phenols and flavonoidswere quantified, and antioxidant capacity was assessed by spectroscopic assays [troloxequivalent antioxidant capacity (TEAC) and percent inhibition of diphenylpicrylhydrazyl (DPPH)radicals]. Antimicrobial activities of the extracts against Vibrio cholerae and Clostridiumperfringens were determined by the well diffusion method and calculation of minimalbactericidal concentration (MBC) by agar plate assay. All extracts tested showed antioxidantand antibacterial activities. Extracts of cladodes and their corresponding by-products showedsimilar MBCs for C. perfringens (around 15 mg ml-1) and V. cholerae (4.0 mg ml-1). However,extracts of cladode by-products showed higher antioxidant capacity than those of cladodesaccording to both DPPH and TEAC assays. Higher concentrations of phenols and flavonoidswere also found in the extracts of by-products (ranging from 91.23 to 853.78 mg gallic acidequivalents per gram dry weight and from 17.10 to 39.42 mg quercetin equivalents per gramdry weight, respectively). This study demonstrates that nopal cactus species exhibit higherantioxidant activity and contents of both phenols and flavonoids in cladode by-products thanthat in their corresponding cladodes. Our data indicate that discarded cladode by-products maybe are a potentially valuable resource for nutraceutical and drug development.