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http://e-press.uth.tmc.edu/pub_affairs/mm/cactus.html

 

Cactus plant may offer medicinal benefits to heart, diabetes patients

The prickly pear cactus,a spiny and thorny Texas tradition, is being studied

and touted for its medicinal and culinary worth.

Liliana Rodriguez has been a member for five years of the Texas Prickly Pear

Council which helps, with the Texas A & M University at Kingsville, to promote

the use and study of nopalitos (pronounced no-pal-lee-toes, Spanish for

prickly pear cactus).

 

Rodriguez, a medical technologist in the UT-Houston Medical School

department of microbiology, won second place in the salad category at the

1995 Prickly Pear Cookoff at Kingsville in April. Every dish imaginable was

entered in the event-from appetizers to desserts to wine-made from both

parts of the cactus: the fruit or tunas and the young tender leaves called

nopalitos.

 

" Many people have eaten cactus for years, especially in the Hispanic

community. The fruit and nopalitos have long been recognized as a meat

substitute during Lent in both Mexican and Mexican-American cultures, " adds

Rodriguez.

 

But there is more to this succulent than the thorny surface. Research is

being conducted at the University of Arizona Health Science Center on the

pectin in cactus and how it may or may not reduce the low-density

lipoprotein (LDL), which is the " bad " cholesterol that puts people at risk

for heart disease. The ability of pectin to reduce a patient's daily insulin

requirement also is being studied in universities in Mexico.

 

Cactus, a source of fiber, is low in calories and sodium, which makes it a

healthy food for a patient with diabetes, a disease especially prevalent

among Hispanics. Nopalitos has a taste similar to bell pepper or green beans

and is suitable for salads, casseroles or soups. The pads can be cut into

strips, coated in corn meal and fried. Some prefer to boil them like okra

and stir them into scrambled eggs.

 

The fruit of the plant is tasty and popular, and is high in vitamin C,

calcium and phosphorous. " This part of the cactus is delicious whether eaten

raw or used to make fruit drinks, jellies and candy, " Rodriguez observes.

For years, ranchers have used cactus to feed their cattle after burning off

the spines.

 

The Kingsville event was part of the 6th Annual International Prickly Pear

Symposium and Fiesta sponsored by Texas A & M University at Kingsville and the

Texas Prickly Pear Council. The symposium, with Texas Agriculture

Commissioner Rick Perry as guest speaker, included technical presentations

by cactus farmers and scientists who discussed the latest plantings and

harvesting techniques along with recent scientific and medicinal findings.

 

One of the features of this symposium was the exchange of ideas and concepts

among the biochemists, wildlife biologists, nutritionists, ranchers,

physicians and cactus lovers. People came from around the world to share a

common interest in the fast growing and diverse prickly pear industry. Among

the presentations were " Medicinal Qualities of Cactus in a Study of Diabetes

and Cholesterol " by a chemist from Guanajuato, Mexico, and " Possible

Biochemical Basis of Antidiabetic Effects of Opuntia (Prickly Pear Cactus)

Extracts in Experimental Animals " by an associate professor of

pharmaceutical sciences at Texas Southern University.

 

The cactus pads or nopalitos have had many uses through the centuries for

desert dwellers. Many have quenched their thirst with the pads since it is

90 percent water. Cut open, the pads make a soothing poultice for scrapes

and bruises. Dried in the sun, they serve as a purse or pouch. Planted close

together, the plants build a living fence.

 

By Nora K. Shire, Medical School

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