There are many different uses for nopal; it can be used (among many other uses) in juices, sweets, salads and main courses/dishes. By Isabel García de Quevedo*
The use of curing powers of plants is something of which people have never stopped taking advantage. In Mexico, nopal has a special meaning due to the symbolic nature of the Aztecs on Texcoco Lake which later gave rise to the Tenochtitlan empire (this includes tea, nochtli rocks and nopal). The Aztecs used it for many medicinal purposes: they drank this juice to relieve fevers, nopal juice was also used to cure split lips; nopal pulp cured diarrhea, nopal thorns were used to clean infections, the fruit was also used to lower bad bile. Nopal was also used to reduce inflammations and was also used to treat hernias, irritated livers, stomach ulcers and erysipelas. It is currently used as part of our national shield on our flag and it also has many different medicinal uses and can be combined with many different types of foods.
Nopal is a wild plant that grows in cold, desert-like areas. It does not require a lot of water to grow. It is a good source of income for farmers that do not have a lot of funds and who also live in arid or semi-arid parts of the world. It is said that it plays an important ecological role since it stops loss of soil due to deforestation. That is, nopal turns land that was previously not farmable into farmable land. There are about 1,600 species divided in 122 genus in the cactus family alone to which nopal belongs. Nopal is also an edible fruit and are known as "tunas". In Mexico, the per-capita consumption of nopal is 6.4 kilos.
Nopal Properties
Nopal is used as a stover, but it is also marketed as a vegetable. This can be used in soups, salads and main courses, in snacks, salsas, drinks, desserts, marmalades, and in many other foods. Liquefied nopal together with a favorite fruit has also gotten quite popular with those who are looking to lose weight or with certain types of illnesses that will be described later on in this essay. The only problem with this is that a lot of nutrients get left behind in the blender. Dehydrated nopal is a solution to this problem. We also recommend using garlic, bicarbonates, tomato skins, corn husks, lemon juice, ashes or volcanic rocks in water.
Nutritional Value
When we talk about nopal's nutritional value, we can say that one cup of crude nopal (approximately 86 grams) has about 2.9 grams of carbohydrates and 1.1 grams of protein and only 14 kcalories. However, its main attractiveness is that it contains a large quantity of dietetic fiber (water soluble and insoluble solutions-2 grams of fiber per cup). There is a 30/70 split between water soluble and insoluble fiber. Insoluble fiber can prevent irritable bowels syndrome and hemorrhoids as well as help to prevent colon cancer. Soluble fiber has been used in many different health problems because it helps the digestive tract to slow absorption of nutrients and subsequently slows nutrients absorption into the bloodstream. They are also a good source of calcium since 100 grams of nopal contains approximately 80 mg. of calcium.
Medicinal Properties
It has been proven in several studies (mainly in Mexico) that nopal has many characteristics that are found in several medicines. This does not mean, however, that nopal has magical curing powers.
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Nopal-related studies