What are the nutrition, benefits and applications of the common food prickly pear?

Prickly pear (Rose foxburghiiTratt) is also known as Wenxian fruit, send spring return. Is Rosaceae rose genus deciduous shrub, native to yungui plateau, guizhou, sichuan, jiangxi, hubei and other provinces have introduced cultivation prickly pear is rich in vitamin C (Vc), superoxide dismutase (SOD), prickly pear flavonoids, prickly pear polysaccharide and a variety of human body must amino acids.

Nutritional composition of prickly pear

Prickly pear fruit 8 ~ l0 months mature, color golden yellow, taste sweet and sour, its specific nutrient composition see table 1. its fruit VC content is particularly rich, about kiwifruit VC content of 1O times, citrus 100 times, apples, pears, 500 times; VP content is very high, is ginkgo biloba 12 times, citrus 120 times, vegetables 150 times; contains active substances ” superoxide dismutase”, “superoxide dismutase”, “SOD” and a variety of human amino acids.

In addition, prickly pear fruit contains carotene, B vitamins are also very considerable; anti-aging effect of trace elements Mo, Co, the content of rapeseed pollen 1.25 times; trace elements in Fe content of 131μg/g, higher than the general fruit; total dietary fiber content of 4.2% of the fresh weight, belongs to the dietary fiber content of the higher fruit.

Prickly pear and its effective components of the efficacy of

Prickly pear polysaccharide has the role of immunomodulation, can enhance the role of non-specific immune function and humoral immune function.

Prickly pear flavonoids have the role of radiation protection, radiation protection is an important means to reduce the side effects of radiation therapy.
Prickly pear SOD has anti-mutagenic, anti-cancer effect, due to mutation and carcinogenesis between the existence of a close link, so in-depth study of anti-mutagenic, anti-cancer substances on cancer prevention is of great significance.

In vitro studies show that prickly pear juice can improve the antioxidant capacity of low-density lipoprotein, reduce the accumulation of cholesterol in macrophages and the formation of foam cells induced by oxidized low-density lipoprotein; it can also prolong the oxidation delay time of high-density lipoprotein and its subfractions, reduce its oxidative susceptibility, and thus play the role of anti-atherosclerosis.

Application of prickly pear in food

In recent years, with the development of mountainous areas and economic development. The development and utilization of prickly pear resources are getting more and more attention. Prickly pear fresh fruit due to the taste of sour, fresh food is difficult to enter, only through processing, in order to form a consumer market. With prickly pear can be made into canned food, juice, cool drinks, jam, fruit wine and other kinds of processed food, the use of advanced processing technology, not only can make the prickly pear products nutrient-rich, flavorful and tasty, and can maintain a high content of Vc and other nutrients.

3.1 Prickly pear canned
Prickly pear canned taste crisp, sweet and sour, and contains a lot of dietary fiber. Adopting low temperature continuous sterilization process, it can keep high level of Vc preservation rate.

3.2 Prickly pear juice and beverage
Prickly pear juice due to high tannin content, astringent flavor is too heavy, not suitable for the production of 100% fruit juice, generally make 20% of the juice drink, better flavor. If you want to make the original juice, must first tannin removal. If processing and blending, can also form a series of prickly pear composite drinks.

Such as winter melon, prickly pear juice drink in addition to anti-cancer, anti-aging and other medicinal effects, there are wasting, thirst, clearing heat, detoxification and other effects. Prickly pear, fire thorny composite juice drink mouth, improve the prickly pear fruit processing juice alone aroma partial stains weakness, the product taste good, color and lustre beauty, rich in nutrients; Prickly pear, sweet potato leaf pure natural green health care drinks and prickly pear health care tea and other beverages, welcomed by consumers.

3.3 Prickly pear lyophilized powder capsule
Prickly pear with other fruits, raw material production (fresh fruit) are characterized by seasonality. Due to the prickly pear contains Vc and SOD are heat-sensitive substances, very easy to suffer damage, in the conventional processing methods in the preservation rate is not high, the use of freezing vacuum drying method of production of prickly pear juice powder, can better maintain the nutritional composition of prickly pear.

Therefore, it is particularly important to dry the fresh fruit of prickly pear. After research findings. Prickly pear fruit after seeding cut 6 ~ 8 pieces of sulfur treatment in 70 ~ 100 ℃ oven baked 6 ~ 15h, so that its dry weight accounted for the fresh weight of 13 ~ 17 that can be stored for a long time. At this time, the VC content is 6000~8000mg/100g, and the shorter the baking time and the lower the temperature, the less Vc loss. This product is good for long-term preservation, with anti-cancer, anti-aging and other medicinal effects.

Zhejiang citrus research institute fruit processing research and development center processing of prickly pear freeze-dried powder, by the Shanghai food research institute test center analysis, Vc content of 14000mg/100g, the total flavonoid content of 8500mg/100g, S0D activity determination for 40U/g, that freeze-drying method can better maintain the nutrient composition of the prickly pear, is the future of the prickly pear processing of a development direction.

3.4 Sugar food and prickly pear wine
Adopt prickly pear sugar production process, prickly pear fruit can be processed into prickly pear sugar, prickly pear preserved fruit and other sugar food. Because of the production equipment and high technical requirements, at present has not been mass production. And the use of prickly pear fruit wine, there is a long history.

The development prospect of prickly pear

Prickly pear nutrition is rich, but at present is still in the semi-wild state, so it is called “the third generation of fruit” by industry insiders, China’s Yangtze River Basin climate is very suitable for the production of prickly pear, prickly pear processed products in line with the modern food nutrition, health care and green, organic requirements to strengthen the production of prickly pear, development and utilization of research, development of China’s prickly pear cultivation and processing industry, not only can provide consumers with the most suitable food, but also can provide consumers with the most suitable food, health care and green. Processing industry, not only can provide consumers with high quality health food, at the same time to return farmland to forests and improve the living conditions of the masses of mountainous areas has important significance.

Another attention-getting problem is prickly pear is rich in Vc and enjoy the reputation, but its biological effect is difficult to explain with Vc alone, prickly pear shows the role of much more than the corresponding Vc content, in addition to there is not yet explored ingredients, but also may be related to a variety of ingredients of the common effect, Judas Xuejun, etc. had found that Vc on the SOD activity measurement (o-toluene trisophenol method) has a very strong interference effect, but when the two At the same time, this interference is far from being able to explain SOD shows very high activity, presumably Vc also has to enhance the biological effect of SOD activity, if so, on the pharmaceutical industry will be an important information can be utilized. With the development of the times, prickly pear this kind of cheap and beautiful natural nutritional plants will make important contributions to human health.