Brazilian Endemic Cacti and Their Potential as an Alternative to Commercial Hydrocolloids

Brazil is one of the main centers of biological heterogeneity of the Cactaceae family vegetables, representing around 33% of the world’s genera (Zappi et al. 2015). These cacti, especially their cladodes, are usually purposed as animal fodder (Sousa 2017). New studies, however, present some species, such as Opuntia fícus-indica L. (palm), Cereus jamacaru D.C. (mandacaru), Pilosocereus gounellei (xique-xique), and Pilosocereus pachycladusr (facheiro), as sources for useful substances, like mucilages (Vieira et al. 2021).