Prickly Pear – Will the Mexican Cactus Help You Lose Fat?!

Obesity is fast becoming a major health concern all over the world. It increases significantly the morbidity and risk of mortality associated with diabetes, metabolic syndrome and cardiovascular diseases (Expert Panel on the Identification Evaluation and Treatment of Overweight in Adults, 1998; Field et al., 2001; Eckel et al., 2004).

Owing to significant adverse effect, the pharmacological approaches (use of drugs) to tackle obesity has taken a back seat in recent years. Researchers, clinicians and people looking to reduce body weight are always in search of supplements containing natural ingredients. Although a large number of such ingredients are packed in a fat burner, not many of these work.

Prickly pear (also known as NeOpuntia) is one such ingredient; whether it successfully reduces fat and body weight is for us to find out!

What is Prickly Pear?

Prickly pear is tree-like cactus belonging to the family Cactaceae (de Leo, Abreu, Pawlowska, Cioni, & Braca, 2010).

Also known as NeOpuntia or Nopal, it goes by the name Opuntia ficus-indica in scientific literature. It is quite popular in Mexican traditional medicine where it is recommended for treatment of diarrhoea, colitis, diabetes, hypercholesterolemia, atherosclerosis and benign prostatic hypertrophy (BPH). Extract from prickly pear cactus are mostly used for treating these conditions.

In addition to the above mentioned conditions, Mexicans also have used it to lose weight. The rest of the world is just beginning to notice the amazing qualities that prickly pear cactus holds.

How Does Prickly Pear Cause Fat Loss?

Prickly pear extract causes fat loss owing to its rich fiber content.

Prickly pear extract is high in soluble fiber and pectin. Fiber including pectin increases the bulk (and viscosity of stools) thereby slowing absorption and thus the blood levels of sugars. This indirectly translates into lesser amounts of calories getting converted into fat for storage (Yeh, Eisenberg, Kaptchuk, & Phillips, 2003; De Smet, 2002).

Prickly pear extract’s ability to cause weight loss is the often credited to the above mechanism. However, since prickly pear seems to affect fasting blood glucose levels as well, other yet undefined mechanisms have long been suspected to be at play (Rodriguez-Fragoso, Reyes-Esparza, Burchiel, Herrera-Ruiz, & Torres, 2008).

Does Prickly Pear Extract Have Other Health Benefits?

Prickly pear extract has been reported to be effective in a number of unrelated pathological conditions including alcohol related hangovers, colitis, diarrhoea and benign prostatic hypertrophy (BPH) (Wolfram et al., 2003).

Effects of prickly pear extract beneficial to human health:

• Relieves symptoms of a hangover like – anorexia, nausea, dry mouth (Cho et al., 2006)
• Hypoglycaemic effect (reduces blood sugar levels) – may be of benefit in preventing or treating diabetes (Shapiro & Gong, 2002; Wolfram et al., 2003)
• Reduces blood lipid and cholesterol levels and affects the composition of LDL (low density lipoprotein cholesterol) favourably (Wolfram et al., 2003)
• Has value in treating BPH: consumption of powdered flower of prickly pear cactus has been shown to improve symptoms like fullness and frequency of bladder emptying (Palevitch, Earon, & Levin, 1994; Wolfram et al., 2003)
• Has anti-oxidant (Kim et al., 2010) and anti-inflammatory (Park, Kahng, & Paek, 1998) actions
• Opuntia ficus-indica also has anti-cancer activities (Chavez-Santoscoy, Gutierrez-Uribe, & Serna-Saldivar, 2009)

What Are The Recommended Doses of Prickly Pear Extract?

Commercially, prickly pear extract is available in the form of powders, capsules, tablets and juices.
Although the doses have not been standardized, manufacturers recommend the following for weight loss:

• 250mg capsules by mouth x 3 times a day

For other conditions, the recommended doses in traditional Mexican medicine are:

• Diabetes: 100-500 mg of broiled stems per day.
• Hangovers: 1600 IU of prickly pear extract 5 hours before alcohol

Are There Any Ill-effects of Using Prickly Pear That I Should Be Aware Of?

Generally, prickly pear extract is well tolerated when taken orally (Rodriguez-Fragoso et al., 2008). However, some amounts of mild adverse effects have been reported.

Rodrigeuz-Fragoso et al., in their paper published in 2008, discussed the pharmacological and toxicological properties of a number of plant species including Nopal (Rodriguez-Fragoso et al., 2008).

According to them, prickly pear extract may cause:

• Nausea (feeling of throwing up),
• Diarrhoea,
• Abdominal discomfort, and
• Headache

Other researchers have also reported similar findings (Federici, Multari, Gallo, & Palazzino, 2005; De Smet, 2002).

Is There Any Scientific Evidence in Favour of Prickly Pear?

Although practitioners of traditional Mexican medicine swear by its effectiveness, there is very little scientific evidence to go by. Not many human studies investigating the weight-reducing abilities of prickly pear extract have been conducted. The very few that have been published so far do not, by any stretch of imagination, support the idea that supplementing with prickly pear extract might help you lose weight.

Here are some:

1. Godard et al, in their published findings reported that Opuntia ficus-indica in a dose of 200mg per day for a period of 16 weeks caused significant reduction in blood glucose concentration. However, that did not translate into any significant changes in body weight or body composition (Godard et al., 2010).
2. South East Asian scientists investigating the favourable effects of the genus Opuntia concluded that although the plants belonging to this genus are effective in increasing bone mineral density, body weight was not much affected (Kang, Park, Choi, Igawa, & Song, 2012).

Notwithstanding the immense anecdotal evidence, it is an undeniable fact that the prickly pear extract and its effect on body weight hasn’t been investigated enough.

What is Our Verdict on Prickly Pear?

In view of the lack of scientific evidence for its weight-reducing abilities of, we would have to rule against prickly pear extract being a weight loss agent.

About the author: Rachel Butler

Rachel has been with us since we launched back in 2012.

Rachel has reviewed countless products over the years, and has written many articles offering sound advice. Her professional opinions are widely respected.

Rachel graduated a BSc in Clinical Science from the University of Leicester, U.K.

She lives in York with her husband and young daughter and their dog, a little terrier named Betsy.