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Physical and chemical characteristics of Opuntia ficus-indica (L.) Mill. cladodes

Abstract:

Opuntia ficus-indica (L.) Mill. grows properly in arid and semiarid regions of Venezuela; nevertheless, scientific information about the crop is required that allows proposing alternative of agroindustrial use. In this sense, it was aimed to study the physical and chemical characteristics of O. ficus-indica cladodes grown in El Tocuyo, Lara state. Cladodes at ages from 1 to 4, 5 to 8 and 9 to 12 months were harvested and were evaluated fresh biomass, length, width, thickness, titratable acidity (TA), pH, and contents of total soluble solids (TSS), ascorbic acid, moisture, proteins, ash, fats, carbohydrates, total pectin, iron, calcium and potassium. A completely randomized design was used to evaluate the effect of age on the characteristics of the cladodes through variance analysis and Tukey means comparison test. Cladodes presented 244.85 to 1,298.25 g of fresh biomass, 26.47 to 40.04 cm long, 15.86 to 22.95 cm width and 7.7 to 15.2 mm thick. The major chemical components of the cladodes were moisture (91.89 to 92.20 g·100 g-1), carbohydrates (5.62 to 6.02 g·100 g-1) and minerals (1.32 and 1.51 g·100 g-1). It was concluded that O. ficus-indica cladodes presented physical and chemical characteristics dependent on age and represent a source of moisture, carbohydrates, ascorbic acid, iron, calcium and potassium.