Cactus seeds: A source of biocompounds with functional activity

Plants of the Cactaceae family are distributed from Canada to Argentina and are mainly consumed as fresh fruits. Recently, these fruits have been processed into jam, jellies, juice, liquor, and other items. However, only the flesh is used, while the seeds are discarded. These by-products have prompted much interest due their special compositional characteristics, such as their fatty acid profile and their phenolic, flavonoid, carotene, and tocopherol contents, as well as their insoluble dietary fiber content. Cactus seeds are an important source of essential fatty acids, such as linoleic and linolenic acids, which are the biosynthetic precursors of eicosanoids. It has been demonstrated that consumption of seeds from Opuntia ficus indica and Opuntia joconostle provides beneficial biological effects, such as a hypolipidemic effect in hypercholesterolemic rat and mouse models. Seeds from prickly pears exhibit an excellent antioxidant capacity due to their total phenolic content. For these reasons, cactus seeds could potentially be commercialized as natural sources of biocompounds oils, and fiber for supplementation of food for animals or humans.