Water-soluble polysaccharides from Opuntia stricta Haw. fruit peels: recovery, identification and evaluation of their antioxidant activities

Abstract

A b s t r a c t. Opuntia stricta Haw. is considered as one of the most common cactus plant growing in Tunisia. Extracting valuable compounds from its fruit peel, considered as by-product, is drawing more and more attention, making it on the verge of commercialization. Water-soluble polysaccharides were extracted from Opuntia stricta Haw. peels, and their chemical composition assessed using thin layer chromatography. The antioxidant activities of the extracted polysaccharides were assessed using 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl free radical scavenging activity, total antioxidant activity and reducing power capacity. The extraction yield of water-soluble polysaccharides was 7.53±0.86%. The chemical composition revealed the presence of rhamnose, arabinose, glucose, mannose, galactose and galacturonic acid. The infra-red spectroscopic analysis showed a similar structure to that of Opuntia ficus-indica polysaccharide peels. Additionally, the extracted polysaccharides exhibited high antioxidant activities. In fact, the free radical scavenging activity (half inhibition concentration = 6.5 mg ml -1 with 94.9% inhibition at 50 mg ml -1

Antioxidant Properties of Water-Soluble Gum from Flaxseed Hulls

“…Soluble flaxseed gum (SFG) were extracted from hulls as previously described [ 26 ]. In brief, 20 g of hulls was mixed with 500 mL distilled water in a 1 L rounded bottom flask.…”

“…Investigating other health-related benefits of SFG—such as its antioxidant potential, which has not been described before—is interesting, as it may lead to the replacement of some synthetic antioxidants, which are more and more restricted by legislation [ 25 ]. In fact, water-soluble polysaccharides extracted from plant materials and by-products may exhibit antioxidant activities, such as those extracted from red prickly pear peels [ 26 ], almond gum [ 27 ], garlic straw [ 28 ], almond and pistachio juice processing by-products [ 29 ], and many other examples. In this line, this work aims at extracting SFG from hulls and evaluating its antioxidant properties.…”

Passiflora foetida yielding and nutritional composition

“…Fruit peel has proved to be relevant as a source of nutraceuticals in the diet of humans or animals. Thus, the peels of banana (AGAMA-ACEVEDO et al, 2016), mango (JAHURUL et al, 2015, opuntia (KOUBAA et al, 2015), rambutan (WANLAPA et al 2015), passion fruit (JANEBRO et al, 2008;KULKARNI;VIJAYANAND, 2010) among others, have been utilized. In this study, we have found that in general the pulp holds more nutrients, with higher contents of K and Fe (4.3 and 42.5 µg/100 g) ( Table 3).…”

Biological activities of water‐soluble polysaccharides fromOpuntia humifusastem in high‐fat‐diet‐fed mice

“…It also differs from WSP obtained from O. monacantha which had rhamnose, arabinose, and glucose as the main sugar (Zhao, Yang, Yang, Jiang, & Zhang, 2007) and O. stricta which had rhamnose and galactose as the main sugars (Koubaa et al, 2015). The WSP of O.…”

“…This differs from the WSP isolated from Opuntia dillenii which had a molecular weight of 6,479.1 kDa and consisted of rhamnose and glucose as their main sugars (Gao et al, ). It also differs from WSP obtained from O. monacantha which had rhamnose, arabinose, and glucose as the main sugar (Zhao, Yang, Yang, Jiang, & Zhang, ) and O. stricta which had rhamnose and galactose as the main sugars (Koubaa et al, ). The WSP of O. humifusa also contained uronic acid in a significant amount and small amount of proteins possibly present as impurities.…”