Assessment of jelly candy manufactured from prickly pear fruits (Opuntia Spp.)

The purpose of the present study was to assess fresh juice and peels of cactus pear Opuntia ficus-indica (yellow cultivar) and Opuntia littoralis (red cultivar),local origin for their Physicochemical properties and bioactive compounds as well as jelly candies prepared by using six formulas of prickly pear juice and peels were studied .The obtained results showed that, prickly pear juices (red and yellow cultivars) were the highest T.S.S (12.3 and 11.9%, respectively) and PH values (5.2 and 5.7, respectively), while the lowest values were recorded for the peels. On the contrary, the peels possessed the highest total phenolic contents (87.72 and 76.15 mg Gallic acid/100 g FW) and flavonoids (18.182 and 13.55 mg Querectin/100 g FW) for red and yellow, respectively. Whereas, red prickly pear showed lower content of carotenoids and higher content of betalains than yellow prickly pear (either for juice or peels). On the other hand, results showed that jelly candies produced from prickly pear are found to be important source of total polyphenols, flavonoids, carotenoids, and betalains and have low microbial load during cold storage for 4weeks. Sensorial evaluation showed that red peels, red juice and yellow juice jelly candies were the most accepted by panelists with the same values which considered “Like very Much ” .Therefore, prickly pear fruits can be used for food manufacturing especially children's foods which are considered to be healthy, attractive colors, have no side effects and are appropriate in sensorial properties which leads to an increase in the add value.