Cactus pear fruit: A new source for a natural sweetener

The use of cactus pear (Opuntia ficus indica L.) to obtain a new natural li quid sweetener was studied. The juice of the fruit (16.5 degrees Brix) was clarified with enzymes, treated with active carbon to take out the color an d vacuum concentrated to obtain a 60 degrees Brix syrup or liquid sweetener . Physical and chemical characteristics determined included: aw; reducing s ugars (as inverted sugar); glucose (%); ash content (%); sugar composition by TLC; OD (420 nm) and Y, x, y chromaticity coordinates; viscosity (cps) a nd density (g/ml). Sensory analyses to determine the relative sweetness wer e also conducted. Cactus pear syrup contained 52.38% reducing sugar. The sy rup had a pH of 4.31, a viscosity of 27.05 cps, an A, of 0.83, a density of 1.2900 g/ml, an acidity (as citric acid) of 0.74% and an ash content of 1. 4%. Compared with traditional sweeteners such as fructose and glucose syrup , the acidity was greater than that of HFCS (high fructose corn syrup) of 0 .035%, and the ash values were considered a little high compared to glucose syrup which is 1.0%; these disparities can be attributed to the different processing conditions employed. Sensory evaluation revealed the same relati ve sweetness for cactus pear syrup and glucose, but lower than fructose; ca ctus pear syrup had a relative sweetness value of 67 with respect to sucros e (100).