Phytoconstituents and biological activities of Opuntia-ficus indica L. mucilage grown in tree Tunisian provenances
In recent years, the use of natural products became a big necessity in order to prevent human health and to protect the environment besides risks caused by using synthetic chemicals. However, Opuntia-ficus-indica mucilage had an ample application for ethno medicine, there is no reports focusing on their chemical composition and biological activity. In this work, we aimed to investigate, for the first time, the antioxidant activity, the total phenolic and the flavonoid contents, the antimicrobial and allelopathic activities of the mucilage extracted from Opuntia-ficus- indica rackets collected at three different ages (1, 2 and 3 years old) originated from three Tunisian provenances (Sbeitla, Matmata and Ouslatia).