Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
13
Prickly Pear Fruit and Cladodes
Elhadi M. Yahia
INTRODUCTION
The prickly pear cactus plant belongs to the family
Cactaceae, subfamily Opuntioideae, and is a xetrophyte
producing about 200-300 species, mainly growing in arid
(less than 250 mm annual precipitation) and semi-arid
(250-450 mm annual precipitation) zones. The crop is pro-
duced and consumed in several countries. It is native to
North America, and densely produced in the desert zones of
the southern United States, north-central Mexico and Peru.
From there it has been taken to several other parts of the
world including Africa and Europe. The plants thrive well
in subtropical, semi-arid climates. It is adapted to grow and
produce under low water regimes and poor soils (Nobel
1994). As a CAM (crassulacean acid metabolism) plant,
Opuntia
spp. is characterized by high water use efficiency
of 4-10 mmol CO
2
per mol H
2
O compared to C
3
- and C
4
-
plants, with efficiencies of 1.0-1.5 mmol and 2-3 mmol
CO
2
per mol H
2
O, respectively. It exhibits the highest pro-
duction rate in terms of above-ground biomass of all known
crop plants, and the biomass production was found to
increase upon the increase in atmospheric CO
2
concentra-
tions (thus counter-acting the greenhouse effect) (Nobel
1991; Nobel & Israel 1994; Goldstein
et al
. 1991). Because
of its high adaptability and multiple uses, it has been dis-
persed from its native habitats in North America to other
regions in the world (Barbera 1995). Cactus fruit and clad-
odes (Figures 13.1 and 13.2) can be readily and abundantly
produced under high temperature and little water, condi-
tions unfavourable for the production of many other crops.
Cactus plants serve numerous purposes; such as sources for
fruit and vegetables, for medicinal and cosmetic purposes,
as forage, for building materials, as source for natural col-
ours. However, many of these uses are still very restricted to
a very few countries, and in light of global desertification
and declining water sources,
Opuntia
spp. is gaining impor-
tance as an effective source of food including as vegetable
(Flores 1995). Internationally, about 100 000 ha are devoted
to
Opuntia
fruit and cladode commercial production; how-
ever, more than 3 million hectares of
Opuntias
are grown in
native habitats (Barbera 1995). In Mexico over 50 000 ha of
prickly pear cactus are cultivated commercially, of which
over 10 000 ha are devoted to the production of cladodes,
with an annual production of about 600 000 metric tons per
annum. Mexico is the only country planting cladodes for
commercial use as a vegetable.
Opuntia ficus-indica
is cul-
tivated in more than 20 countries (Nobel 1988).
Nopalea
cochenillifera
is primarily cultivated in southern California
and Texas, and the cladodes of this species are softer, devoid
of spines, contain less mucilage, and are greener than those
of
Opuntia
spp. (Mizrahi
et al
. 1997). The
Opuntia ficus-
indica
(L.) Mill. species has gradually attained economic
importance in Sicilian agriculture (Galati
et al
. 2002).
Similarly its importance has grown in northern Mexico
(Borrego-Escalante
et al
. 1990), the Mediterranean basin
(Le Houérou 1996a), the arid highlands of western Asia (Le
Houérou 1996b) and the south-western United States
(Parish & Felker, 1997). Cold hardiness of
Opuntia spp
.
clones used for fruit, forage or vegetable production have
been reported by Le Houérou (1971), Russell and Felker
(1987), Guevara
et al
. (1999, 2000), Gregory
et al
. (1993)
