Abstract:
Opuntia megarrhiza is an endemic plant used in Mexican traditional medicine
for the treatment of bones fractures in humans and domestic animals. One of
the most used technique for the detection and characterization of the structure
of phytochemical compounds is the Gas Chromatography Coupled to Mass
Spectrometry. The goals of the present study were to identify and characterize
the phytochemical compounds present in wild individuals of O. megarrhiza using
this analysis. We used chloroform and methanol extracts from cladodes, and
they were analyzed by gas chromatography-electron impact-mass spectrometry.
We obtained 53 phytochemical compounds, 19 have been previously identified with
some biological activity. Most of these compounds are alkanes, alkenes, aromatic
hydrocarbons, fatty acids, and ketones. We detected some fragmentation patterns
that are described for the first time for this species. The variety of metabolites
presents in O. megarrhiza justifies the medicinal use of this plant in traditional
medicine and highlight it as a source of phytochemical compounds with potential in
medicine and biotechnology.
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