• Food Science and Preservation
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.711-717
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• 2016

Opuntia humifusa fruits were investigated. The length of minor and major axis, and weight of O. ficus-indica and O. humifusa fruits were compared as the morphological features. The characteristics of components such as color, moisture, crude protein, ash, fat, dietary fiber, mineral, and amino acids were evaluated. The values of O. ficus-indica fruits were higher than those of O. humifusa fruits in each morphological feature such as minor axis, major axis, and weight. According to the Hunter color index results, O. humifusa fruits showed higher values of L (lightness) and b (yellowness), whereas O. ficus-indica fruits showed higher value of a (redness). The ${\Delta}E$ value between two samples was 19.80. The O. ficus-indica fruits had higher carbohydrate content and lower content of crude ash than those of O. humifusa fruits. Both samples showed very high dietary fiber contents, and the major minerals were K and Ca. Glutamic acid was the major amino acids in both samples. In free amino acids contents, O. ficus-indica had higher tyrosine and lower glutamic acid level than those of O. humifusa fruits. ${\gamma}$-aminobutyric acid was found in both samples, whereas taurine was found in O. ficus-indica fruits only. Taken together, the morphological features and chemical quality of O. ficus-indica and O. humifusa fruits showed difference although both of them were originated from the same genus.

• Journal of the East Asian Society of Dietary Life
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• v.21 no.5
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• pp.691-697
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• 2011

The purpose of this study was to determine the possibility of using Opuntia ficus-indica as a natural health food source. To accomplish this, the contents of general and antioxidative nutrient contents of Opuntia ficus-indica were measured. The carbohydrate, crude protein, crude fat and crude ash were 66.79%, 5.51%, 9.89% and 9.29%, respectively. The calorie contents of Opuntia ficusindica was 378.21 kcal. The content of total dietary fiber was 36.54%. The essential and non-essential amino acids contents were 1,635.14 mg and 3,012.68 mg, respectively. Potassium was the most abundant mineral followed by Ca, Mg, and Na, showing that Opuntia ficus-indica is an alkali material. The electron-donating activity (EDA) of Opuntia ficus-indica was 29.85~44.57%, and the activity was dependent on the sample concentration. Total phenolic content of Opuntia ficus-indica was 2.21 ${\mu}g$/mg, and total flavonoids content was estimated as 1.80 ${\mu}g$/mg. Opuntia ficus-indica extract showed the highest reducing power (OD 700=3.18) at a concentration of 6.25 mg/mL. Based on the above results, we determined that the Opuntia ficus-indica has potential antioxidant activities.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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• v.31 no.5
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• pp.733-737
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• 2002

Cooking characteristics of rice uncoated and coated with prickly pear water extracts (4% v/w for rice) were investigated. Prickly pear contained 83.22 mg% of $\alpha$-aminoadipic acid and 75.61 mg% of tyrosine as major free amino acids. After cooking, the coated rice contained 1.66 mg% of $\alpha$-aminoadipic acid which was not found in the uncoated rice. The free amino acid composition of the coated rice revealed significantly higher contents (about 2.0 to 4.2 times) of arginine, histidine, leucine, lysine and tyrosine compared with those of the uncoated rice. The major minerals in the prickly pear were Ca, K and Mg accounting for 95% of the total minerals present. After cooking, the mineral contents in the coated rice were higher by 10～45% than those in the uncoated rice. The coated rice showed lower hardness, gumminess and brittleness, and higher cohesiveness than the uncoated rice. In sensory evaluation, there were no differences in sweet taste, and overall and color acceptability between the uncoated and coated rice. However, tile coated rice showed higher scores for savory and sticky taste than the uncoated rice.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.17 no.9 s.89
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• pp.1278-1283
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• 2007

The 30% resistant frequencies of pathogenic bacteria were identified against generally utilizing disinfectants. Among the used disinfectants, foodsef, Taego, and Iodo 175 were dictated by lower sensitivities against pathogenic bacteria, as well as higher resistant frequencies when compared with other disinfectants. The resistant frequencies against antibiotics were also dictated by 30% through MIC (minimal inhibitory concentration) and paper disc methods. Especially, the used bacteria exhibited resistances against gentamycin, kanamycin, and streptomycin, which included in all aminoglycoside group. The MBT-01108 material, which extracted and purified from a powder obtained by processing of Opunita ficus-indica var. saboten Makino trunk, did not develop or grow resistant bacteria. Interestingly, the multi-drug resistant bacteria such as MRSA, resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa, VRE, and E. coli 0157 did not resistant against MBT-01108 material. These results suggest that MBT-01108 material uses as an anti-microbial agent.

• Korean Journal of Plant Resources
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.161-168
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• 2006

To investigate the origin of backyeoncho (Opuntia ficus-indica var. saboten), we isolated 685 bp clone using ITS primer pairs. The rDNA consists of the genes coding for the partial 54 bp 185, 162 bp 5.8S, and partial 56 bp 26S. The coding regions are interrupted by two internal transcribed spacers, 193 bp ITS1 and 220 bp ITS2. The ITS2 of backnyeoncho in length was shorter than that previously registered in Cucurbitoideae plants. The GC contents was 66.8% in ITS1, and 67.7% in ITS2. The rDNA of backnyeoncho matched to the previously reported genes and showed a high similarity with the 95% identity with Pereskiopsis porteri (L708037). In the phylogenetic analysis, the backnyeoncho rDNA was clustered with Pereskiopsis porteri (L708037).

• Korean Journal of Food Science and Technology
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• v.31 no.6
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• pp.1604-1612
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• 1999

The study was carried out to investigate the quality of the wet noodle added with the powders of nopal and nopalitos from Opuntia ficus-indica. The wet noodles were prepared to the ratio of 3, 6 and 9% (w/w) of the nopal and the nopalitos based on a flour weight. The initial pasting temperature and final viscosity in an amylograph decreased as the increase of the nopal and the nopalitos powders. A cooked weight and volume decreased with the increase of the nopal and the nopalitos powders, while a cooking loss increased. From the sensory evaluation, the wet noodles included 3% nopalitos and 6% nopal powders were similarly evaluated as the noodle used whole wheat flour. Bacterial counts of wet noodle with the nopal and the nopalitos powders were always lower than those of the control. Bacterial counts of wet noodle slowly increased as the increase of the amount of nopal and the nopalitos powders during storage at $4^{\circ}C\;and\;20^{\circ}C$. The methanol extracts from the nopal showed antimicrobial activities against Escherichia coli, Escherichia coli O157 : H7, Salmonella typhimurium, and Bacillus subtilis, while the extracts from the nopalitos showed antimicrobial activity only against Escherichia coli.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.146-153
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• 2009

This study was conducted to examine the effects of fruits and stems of Opuntia ficus-indica var. saboten Makino on water intake, feed intake, body weight, blood glucose level and glucose tolerance in streptozotocin (STZ)-induced diabetic rats. Forty Sprague-Dawley male rats were divided into non-diabetic control (NC), diabetic control (DC), 8% Opuntia fruit (DOF), 5% Opuntia stem (DO-5) and 10% Opuntia stem (DO-10) groups. Fruits and stems of Opuntia ficus-indica were freeze-dried and ground before use in the experiment. Animals were fed experimental diet for 3 weeks. DOF, DO-5 and DO-10 groups showed lower water and feed intake as well as less body weight loss than DC group. The fasting blood glucose levels were 100 mg/dL for NC and 379 mg/dL for DC. Fasting glucose level of DOF was a significantly low level of 28% (p<0.05), whereas DO-5 and DO-10 had a decrease of 5% and 9% compared to DC. As for the glucose tolerance test, the highest blood glucose levels for NC and DC-10 group were observed at 30 minutes after glucose injection while those of DOF and DO-5 groups were after 60 minutes. DOF and DO-5 plasma insulin level improved. Plasma total cholesterol, triglyceride, non-esterified fatty acid (NEFA) and LDL-cholesterol concentrations were also lower in DOF, DO-5 and DO-10 groups, although HDL-cholesterol level was only slightly affected by experimental diets compared to DC. These results suggest that the feeding of Opuntia ficus-indica fruits and stems improved blood glucose and lipid metabolism in STZ-induced diabetic rats.