Contents lists available at ScienceDirect LWT - Food Science and Technology journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/lwt Bioactivity, hydrophilic, lipophilic and volatile compounds in pulps and skins of Opuntia macrorhiza and Opuntia microdasys fruits Hassiba Chahdoura a,b , João C.M. Barreira a,* , Lillian Barros a , Maria Inês Dias a , Ricardo C. Calhelha a , Guido Flamini c , Marina Soković d,e , Lotfi Achour b , Isabel C.F.R. Ferreira a,** a Centro de Investigação de Montanha (CIMO), Instituto Politécnico de Bragança, Campus de Santa Apolónia, 5300-253, Bragança, Portugal b Laboratoire de Recherche “Bioressourses: Biologie Intégrative & Valorisation ” , Institut Supérieur de Biotechnologie de Monastir, Avenue Tahar Hadded, BP 74, 5000, Université de Monastir, Tunisia c Dipartimento di Farmacia, Universitsà di Pisa, via Bonanno 33, 56126, Pisa, Italy d Department of Plant Physiology, Institute for Biological Research “Siniša Stanković”, Serbia e University of Belgrade, Bulevar Despota Stefana 142, 11000, Belgrade, Serbia ARTICLE INFO Keywords: Opuntia spp. Edible fruits Volatiles Hydrophilic and lipophilic compounds Phenolics and betalains Bioactivity ABSTRACT Opuntia genus includes several species able to grow in arid regions and known for producing delicate fruits, which are far from being thoroughly characterized. Herein, fruits from O. macrorhiza and O. microdasys were divided in skins and pulps (without including seeds) and studied for chemical composition, individual phyto- chemicals and bioactivity. The major volatiles were camphor and ethyl acetate, while citric acid was the main organic acid. The fatty acids detected in highest percentages were linoleic acid (skins) and lauric acid (pulps); α- tocopherol was the major isoform of vitamin E. Quercetin-3-O-rutinoside and quercetin-O-(deoxyhexoside-ru- tinoside) were the main phenolics in fruit skins of O. macrorhiza and O. microdasys (respectively), similarly to piscidic acid in O. macrorhiza pulp (O. microdasys pulp showed no quantifiable compounds). Betanin and iso- betanin were the major betalains. All samples were antioxidant (particularly O. macrorhiza), but antimicrobial activity was only detected in skins. Cytotoxicity was low in all cases. Overall, these fruits proved to be potential new ingredients for food or pharmaceutical related applications, adding value to these natural species able to grow in arid environments. 1. Introduction Opuntia genus aggregates nearly 1500 species of cactus, which are mainly distributed in Africa, Mediterranean countries, Southwestern United States, and Northern Mexico (Matthäus & Özcan, 2011). These species have the advantage of being able to grow wildly in arid regions and their fruit (specifically the mesocarp) is usually considered a deli- cacy (Ramadan & Mörsel, 2003), being consumed fresh or used in the form of candies, jellies or beverages (Jimenez-Aguilar, Mujica-Paz, & Welti-Chanes, 2014). It contains soluble sugars, dietary fiber, ascorbic acid, carotenoids, flavonoids, phenolic acids, betacyanins, coumarins, terpenes, alkaloids, and steroids, having some effective uses in folk medicine, e.g., to treat asthma, stomach ulceration or indigestion (Chahdoura et al., 2015a; Chahdoura et al., 2015b; Chougui et al., 2013; Morales, Ramírez-Moreno, Sanchez-Mata, Carvalho, & Ferreira, 2012; Phillips et al., 2010; Pímienta-Barríos, Méndez-Mor-acan, Ramírez-Hernández, García de Alba-García, & Domínguez-Arias, 2008; Samah, Ventura-Zapata, & Valadez-Moctezuma, 2015; Schaffer, Schmitt-Schillig, Müller, & Eckert, 2005). The characterization of phe- nolics compounds, owing to their high antioxidant (Chougui et al., 2013), neuroprotective, anti-inflammatory, cardioprotective, hepato- protective and antidiabetic activities (Kaur, Kaur, & Sharma, 2012) is of special interest. However, Opuntia spp. also contain high levels of vo- latiles (with a high predominance of camphor) (Chahdoura et al., 2016), which also represent a relevant field of study, owing to their progressive use by food and pharmaceutical industries (Mekni et al., 2013). Accordingly, and taking into consideration the increasing dis- semination of Opuntia spp. fruits, this study was designed to chemically characterize sugars, organic acids, tocopherols, fatty acids, volatiles, phenolic acids, flavonoids and betacyanins, as also to evaluate the an- timicrobial activity, antioxidant activity and cytotoxicity in two https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lwt.2019.01.067 Received 19 December 2018; Received in revised form 26 January 2019; Accepted 30 January 2019 * Corresponding author. ** Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: jbarreira@ipb.pt (J.C.M. Barreira), iferreira@ipb.pt (I.C.F.R. Ferreira). LWT - Food Science and Technology 105 (2019) 57–65 Available online 31 January 2019 0023-6438/ © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. T