ANTI-INFLAMATORY AND ANTIOXIDANT ACTIVITY OF THREE VARIETIES OF Opuntia ficus-indica “TUNA”

Abstract

The anti-inflammatory and antioxidant activity of the hydroalcoholic extract of the fruit of the orange, purple and white varieties of Opuntia ficus-indica was determined. The methods were: total phenols by Folin-Ciocalteu, flavonoids by aluminum chloride and antioxidant activity by DPPH, ABTS and FRAP; the anti-inflammatory activity in vitro by the red blood cell membrane stabilization method. The total phenolic content for the orange, white and purple varieties were 4.08, 3.87 and 3.69 mg GAE/g (p> 0.05). The flavonoid content was higher in the orange variety with 2.36 mg QE/g, followed by the purple and white variety
with 2.29 and 2.0 mg QE/g (p <0.05). In the free radical scavenger for DPPH the orange variety presents a higher activity of 6.20 μmol TE/g (p <0.05), for ABTS the purple variety presents 25.35 μmol ET/g (p<0.05) and for the ferric reducing activity potential (FRAP) the varieties did not show differences (p> 0.05). In the anti-inflammatory activity in vitro, the orange (60.32%), purple (51.37%) and white (36.01%) varieties showed lower activity, when were compared to dexamethasone (87.93%) and diclofenac (84.60%) (p <0.05). It is concluded that the pulp of the fruit of the three varieties from Opuntia ficus-indica "prickly pear" have antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activity