Opuntia ficus-indica

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Opuntia ficus-indica
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae Division: Magnoliophyta Class: Magnoliopsida Order: Caryophyllales Family: Cactaceae Genus: Opuntia Subgenus: Opuntia Species: O. ficus-indica
Binomial name
Opuntia ficus-indica (L.) Mill.
Synonyms
Opuntia vulgaris

Opuntia ficus-indica (Indian Fig Opuntia) is a species of cactus and a long-domesticated crop plant important in agricultural economies throughout arid and semiarid parts of the world. Indian Fig Opuntia is grown primarily as a fruit crop, but also for the vegetable nopales and other uses. Most culinary references to the "prickly pear" are referring to this species. The name "tuna" is also used for the fruit of this cactus, and for Opuntia in general (according to Alexander von Humboldt, it was a word of Haitian origin taken into the Spanish language around 1500).

Cacti are good crops for dry areas because they efficiently convert water into biomass. Opuntia ficus-indica, as the most widespread of the long-domesticated cactuses, is as economically important as corn and tequila agave in Mexico today. Because Opuntia species hybridize easily (much like oaks), the wild origin of Opuntia ficus-indica (or even whether it has a single origin) is hard to be certain about, but Opuntia was eaten by humans at least 9000 years before the present.^[1]

Contents 1 Uses 2 Biogeography 3 Sources 4 References

[edit] Uses

The most commercially valuable use for Opuntia ficus-indica today is for the large, sweet fruits, called tunas. Areas with significant tuna-growing cultivation include Mexico, Sicily, Algeria, Chile, Brazil, and northern Africa, as well as in Eritrea and Ethiopia where the fruit is called beles (Ge'ez: በለስ).^[2]

Also, the cladodes are eaten as nopales.

Other uses include as an ingredient in adobe (to bind and waterproof).^[3]

Opuntia ficus-indica is cultivated (as well as other species in Opuntia and Nopalea) to serve as a host plant for cochineal insects, which produce desirable red and purple dyes. This practice dates from pre-Columbian times.^[4]

It is used to make Tungi Spirit on the island of Saint Helena.

O. ficus-indica has various medicinal uses^[5] - including use as a hangover cure (see source at bottom of page). Recently, extracts for the cactus pear fruit has shown to possess antioxidative properties and can cause reduction of DNA damage in human peripheral lymphocytes. This extract has become a potential source of raw material for pharmaceutical and functional food industries. ^[6]

The shoots of O. ficus-indica have been shown to contain at least some mescaline.^[7]

[edit] Biogeography

Recent DNA analysis indicates that O. ficus-indica was domesticated from Opuntia species which are native to central Mexico. The Codex Mendoza, and other early sources, show Opuntia cladodes as well as cochineal dye (which needs cultivated Opuntia) in Aztec tribute rolls. The plant spread to many parts of the Americas in pre-Columbian times, and since Columbus, have spread to many parts of the world, especially the Mediterranean where they have become naturalized (and in fact were believed to be native by many). This spread was facilitated by the carrying of nopales on ships to prevent scurvy.^[8]

[edit] Sources

• Anderson, E. F. 2001. The cactus family. Timber Press, Portland, Oregon, USA.
• Barclay, L. 2004 Herb Helps Alcohol Hangover. Medscape Medical news
• Benson, L. H. 1982. The cacti of the United States and Canada. Stanford University Press, Stanford, California, USA.
• Donkin, R. 1977. Spanish red: an ethnogeographical study of cochineal and the Opuntia cactus. Transactions of the American Philosophical Society 67: 1–77.
• Griffith, M. P. 2004. The origins of an important cactus crop, Opuntia ficus-indica (Cactaceae): New molecular evidence. American Journal of Botany 91: 1915-1921.
• Kiesling, R. 1998. Origen, domesticación y distribución de Opuntia ficus-indica. Journal of the Professional Association for Cactus Development 3. Available online.

[edit] References