Opuntia Research Paper

Opuntia species has been used by humans for thousands of years. Besides being consumed as food or beverages, most portions of the plants have been used as medicine and in modern times have also been prepared as juice, jam, flour, frozen fruit, juice concentrate, and spray-dried juice powder (Smith, 1967; Stintzing & Carle, 2005, 2006; Feugang et al., 2006;). A remarkable number of cacti are used by indigenous people of the New World for healing. According to Parmar and Kaushal (1982), Kirtikar & Basu (1999) and Patil et al. (2008), the plant is bitter, laxative; stomachic, carminative, antipyretic. Cures biliousness, burning, leucoderma, urinary complains, tumours, loss of consciousness, piles, inflammations, anaemia, ulcers, respiratory disorders like asthma and the enlargement of the spleen. The flowers cure bronchitis and asthma. Medically related used of some species are discussed here. The Shoshoni make a poultice from the inner part of the stem of Opuntia basilaris and apply it to cuts and wounds for pain (Moerman, 1998).
Grenand et al. (1987) report that Opuntia cochenillifera is widely used in Mexico and Central America as an antifungal

Nowadays, Opuntia species is amongst the majority of products recommended by Italian herbalists that may be efficacious in reducing glycemia (Cicero et al., 2004). The hypoglycemic activity of broiled stem of Opuntia streptacantha Lemaire was demonstrated using different extract preparation and dosed in diabetic and non-diabetic human volunteers by Meckes-Lozyoa and Roman-Ramos (1986) Frati et al. (1989, 1989a, 1990, 1991), and Roman-Romas et al (1991). Some studies have demonstrated the hypoglycemic activity of the prickly pear cactus extract on non-diabetics and diabetic-induced rats or diabetic humans (Ibanez-Camacho et al., 1979, 1983; Frati et al., 1988, 1990a; Trejo-González et al.,