Chemical properties of cladodes of two cultivars of prickly pear

Opuntia ficus-indica Mill, usually named prickly pear or cactus pear, is the plant which presents the greatest agronomic importance in the Cactaceae family, because both fruits and cladodes are consumed, the latter mainly in Mexico.
It’s geographic distribution covers chiefly Mexico and Latin America, but due to this plant can grow in arid and semiarid climates, we can also find it in South Africa and Mediterranean countries.
In this work have been studied old and young cladodes of two cultivars of O. ficus-indica: ‘NE’, cultivar with spines, and ‘NT’, the traditional cultivar.
Both cultivars were obtained in the experimental farm of the Superior Politechnic School of Orihuela, Spain.
The chemical parameters of the juice: total soluble solids (TSS), tritatable acidity (TA), maturity index (MI), total sugars and total organic acids were determined.
Significant differences were found in the acidity, being the young cladodes of ‘NE’ and the old cladodes of “NT”which presented higher values.
As for TSS, we only found significant differences in the old cladodes, being the cultivar ‘NT’ which presented higher values.
Concerning MI, significant differences were found in young cladodes (‘NT’ presented higher values) and old cladodes (‘NE’ presented higher values). Significant differences were found in total organic acids, but only in young cladodes, being the cultivar ‘NE’ which presented higher values.
About total sugars, we found significant differences in both types of cladodes, being young cladodes of ‘NT’ and old cladodes of ‘NE’ which presented higher values.

IV International Symposium on Pomegranate and Minor Mediterranean Fruits

L. Andreu, N. Nuncio-Jáuregui, A. Amorós, P. Legua, F. Hernández

prickly pear, young cladodes, old cladodes, chemical parameters

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2019.1254.47