A Prickly Pear for the Besotted Some Texans may be interested in this considering we have a lot of the stuff here.
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Posted on 06/28/2004 5:08:34 PM PDT by SJackson
For those who indulge in a little too much of the grape, a botanical cousin, the prickly pear fruit, may be able to ease the aftereffects.
Researchers have found that extracts from the skin of the prickly pear seem to help with the medical condition veisalgia - far better known as a hangover. Their report appears in the current issue of The Archives of Internal Medicine.
The investigators gave 55 student volunteers the extract of the fruit, formally known as Opuntia ficus indica, and then encouraged them to drink an amount of alcohol "demonstrated to safely produce hangover in previous trial," perhaps 5 to 10 drinks, the authors wrote. In another session, the volunteers were asked to drink a similar amount, but were given a placebo instead of the Opuntia.
In both cases, they reported back the next day for assessments of their hangovers. When the results were compared, the researchers found that the Opuntia seemed to ease problems with nausea, dry mouth and lack of appetite. It did not seem to help with other common hangover symptoms, however.
Opuntia, which has demonstrated anti-inflammatory properties, is sometimes sold in health stores as an herbal supplement.
The lead author of the study, Dr. Jeffrey G. Wiese of the Tulane Health Sciences Center in New Orleans, said that despite the threat of hangover, students were happy to volunteer for the study.
They must try to appear to have every reason to... as does the AP, on this big news day.
but those needles, stickers, or what ever you call them on the pricky pears were hell for those drunks.
In the book,"The complete joy of Home Brewing",by Charlie Papazian,he includes a recipe using Prickly pear.He claims it is delicious....
They aren't hard to handle- just do it with salad tongs :)
Freeze them hard, then put them in a pot to thaw, and bring to 180 degrees for a half-hour or so, then put them through a wine press (be sure to filter the juice- they have small spines on the outside which are bad to ingest). Mix in a few needed ingredients (some to ad acidity, some to feed the yeastie beasties), pour into a carboy, attach an airlock, and stick away in a dark corner for a few months. Makes a mighty tasty wine! In fact, I've got some that have been in the freezer for a year or two- I know a place where they grow almost as big as apples- and are a lot juicer.
They are full of seeds and covered with small spines, so it's a pain to eat the flesh of the things- but Euell Gibbons claimed that the seeds could be ground up and used as a thickening agent.
Oh, and the leaves of the prickly pear are edible and delicious while still young (before they grow real spines).
I've said for years that anybody that can figure out how to turn prickly pear into a cash crop will be a rich man- Maybe somebody finally has.
A Prickly Pear for the Besotted Some Texans may be interested in this considering we have a lot of the stuff here.
Please let me know if you want ON or OFF my Texas ping list!. . .don't be shy.
No, you don't HAVE to be a Texan to get on this list!
At 4:50 in the morning ???? Which reminds me, what am I doing up at this time, or, rather, what am I doing at this computer? Have a good one, Meek.
Now I'm left with this mental image of a bunch of drunks thrashing around in a big ol' patch of prickly pear, trying to pick some to put in the blender with a little tomato juice...
"Ow! Ouch! Ow! Dang it! ooch!"
BTW, my uncle, raising cattle on his ranch down near Tarpley in Bandera County, used to use a big propane torch to burn the spines off prickl;y pear "leaves" and feed the to his cattle.
Sorta labor intensive, but there's just not near enough grass around there...
They are talking here about the red fruit of the prickly pear or "tuna". I like to peel them and eat them with ice cream. Tastes like raspberries to me, has a lot of seeds.
I think you're talking about the green prickly pear pads. I boil mine and eat it as a vegetable. They are sold in stores under the name "Nopalito."
Both the fruits and pads of the prickly pear are rich in slowly absorbed soluble fibers that may help keep blood sugar stable.
You're right, fried them up fresh and used them in an omlette. Not my favorite, maybe it's just me :>)
FGS
MIGHTY Tasty...I bet it is. :^)
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