Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
(a)
(b)
(c)
Figure 13.2 (A) Intensive plantation of nopalitos in Mexico, (B) nopalitos in supermarket in Mexico and
(C) different products and supplements from nopalitos. Courtesy of Dr. Carmen Saenz.
cactus, genus Opuntia of the cactus family (Cactaceae)
(Guevara & Yahia 2005). The fruit is a berry and is botani-
cally considered as an accessory fruit formed from an infe-
rior ovary adhering to the receptacle (Laksminarayana
1980). The edible portion of the fruit is made up of a num-
ber of funicles intermixed with juicy papillary hairs. The
funicles are produced as outgrowths from the internal fruit
wall and involve many black, soft seeds. The fruit contains
abundant seeds and fleshy pulp of sweet flavour and is con-
sumed as fresh fruit, juice or sweet. Fruit juice and fruit
juice concentrate are considered as functional ingredients
for the soft drink market, as well as a betalainic colouring
foodstuff (Castellar et  al . 2003; Stintzing et  al . 2001,
2003). The fruit typically weighs 100 to 200 g, and consists
of a thick fleshy skin or rind surrounding a juicy pulp that
contains many hard-coated seeds. Fruit vary considerably
in colour, size and flavour. In Mexico, the sour fruit pro-
duced by some species of prickly pear are called 'xoconox-
tle', whereas the sweet fruit produced by other species are
called 'tuna'. There are several species of Opuntia that
yield edible fruit, but the most important are O. ficus-
indica , O. robusta , O. streptocantha , O. amyclaea , O. meg-
acantha and O. hiptiacantha . The fruit is perishable, but
can be kept for 2 to 5 weeks at 5
C with 90% to 95%
RH. Several factors can limit storage life such as decay,
dehydration and chilling injury  (CI). In addition to its
°
C to 8
°
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