Evaluation and utilization of nopal (culinary) cactus pear under hot arid ecosystem

Abstract

Climate change has become one of the biggest challenges for the sustainable crop production. Prolonged droughts and desertification are the major issues faced by Indian hot arid zone where rural poor and smallholders are most heavily affected. Therefore, the crops which can withstand to such conditions like; drought, high temperatures and poor soils need more emphasis. Cactus crops are gaining increasing interest across the globe, in particular cactus pear or prickly pear (Opuntia ficus indica (L) Mill.) because of its unique characteristics which provide resilience to the harsh ecological conditions. Cactus pear can be grown on land where no other crops are able to grow; it can be used to restore degraded land. It is the only crop that can be relied on when everything else fails. Even today cactus pear is treated as underutilized crop in India, though it has multiple utility. Cactus cladode is rich in pectin, mucilage, minerals, polyphenols, nicotiflorin, vitamins, polyunsaturated fatty acids and amino acids. Cactus nopal pulp has numerous compounds (dietary fibre, vitamin C, phenolic compounds) with the potential to provide important benefits like intestinal, cardiovascular, hepatic health, antioxidant activity and cancer prevention.Recently micropropagation technique of spine-less, vegetable type cactus pear (nopal cactus) was standardized by ICAR - Central Institute for Arid Horticulture (ICAR-CIAH), Bikaner and its evaluation was done under field conditions. Further several value added and culinary products such as fruit, squash of fruit, pickle, ready to serve drinks, colour from fruit and cochineal, cladodes for culinary and salad based on fruits and nopales/cladodes were explored and demonstrated to several beneficiaries from nopal at ICAR-CIAH, Bikaner for making this crop more remunerative. Now-a-days, it is parts of kitchen gardens in arid and semi-arid regions due to nutritional and medicinal properties.