Abstract
Prickly pear (Opuntia ficus-indica L.) is a member of the Cactaceae family originally grown in South America, and the plant is now distributed to many parts of the world, including the Middle East. The chemical composition and biological activities of different parts of prickly pear, including cladodes, flowers, fruit, seeds and seed oil, were previously investigated. Oil from the seeds has been known for its nutritive value and can be potentially used for health promotion. This review is an effort to cover what is actually known to date about the prickly pear seeds oil extraction, characteristics, chemical composition and potential health benefits to provide inspiration for the need of further investigation and future research. Prickly pear seeds oil has been extracted using different extraction techniques from conventional to advanced. Chemical characterization of the oil has been sufficiently studied, and it is sufficiently understood that the oil is a high linoleic oil. Its composition is influenced by the variety and environment and also by the method of extraction. The health benefits of the prickly pear seed oil were reported by many researchers. For future research, additional studies are warranted on mechanisms of action of the reported biological activities to develop nutraceutical products for the prevention of various chronic human diseases.
Highlights
Opuntia ficus-indica L., which is known as a prickly pear, belongs to the Cactaceae family and has spread widely throughout the world
Geographical location with a different extraction method has an effect on the fatty acid composition; in this regard, analyses of fatty acid composition in prickly pear seed oil (PPSO) from prickly pear seeds cultivated in Yemen extracted using the maceration method with n-hexane was investigated [6] and unsaturated fatty acids were found to be the majority of fatty acid content, representing up to 81% in oil with linoleic acid content of 57.5% and oleic acid content of 22.30%
The antimicrobial activity of PPSO originated from Tunisia was tested against 10 microorganisms that have been known to be clinically pathogenic in humans; four bacterial strains, including Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus agalactiae, and Enterobacter cloacae, three yeast strains, including Candida albicans, Candida parapsilosis, and Candida sake, and three fungi, including Aspergillus niger, Penicillium digitatum, and Fusarium oxysporum, were studied [10]
Summary
Opuntia ficus-indica L., which is known as a prickly pear, belongs to the Cactaceae family and has spread widely throughout the world. PPSO extracted from prickly pear seeds originated from Yemen, using maceration extraction with different solvents in the same conditions, indicated that chloroform and methanol in a ratio of 2:1 showed higher yield (7.76 ± 0.43%), following by petroleum ether (6.1 ± 0.41%) and hexane (5.0 ± 0.36) [6]. In this line, Ramadan and Mörsel [4] reported the extraction of the PPSO from cactus pear obtained from a local market in Berlin, Germany. From 0.51 to 6.1 g/100 g, whereas the maceration-percolation method resulted in a PPSO yield in the range 6.2–15.54 g/100 g
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