DIET

Opuntia ficus indica is a traditional food reinvented by Wakonda.

The benefits on human health of the introduction of prickly pear blades and their derivatives into the diet are multiple and counteract the effects of the so-called “welfare diseases”.

From the prickly pear plant it is possible to obtain a series of products and ingredients useful for a correct and healthy diet. From the consumption of the green parts, a food that has always been known in traditional Mexican cuisine as “nopalitos” to a series of processed products, the consumption of OFI is very common in Central American and Southern United States cuisine.

The benefits of including these ingredients in diets are many, ranging from an increased sense of satiety to anti-inflammatory effects, to calcium supplementation, to the reduction of hypertension, peak glycemic levels and hypercholesterolemia, as well as preventing degenerative diseases. especially related to the digestive system (colorectal cancer, liver, stomach, intestine etc.).

Wakonda, thanks to its interdisciplinary team, its corporate network and its strong orientation in Research and Development, has developed and continues to develop semi-finished products in B2B for companies such as mills, confectionery companies, pasta factories and other food industries interested in improving their products from a nutritional and functional point of view.

DRINKS & JUICES

From Opuntia you can obtain refreshing, thirst-quenching, nutritional and functional drinks.

The Central American tradition has developed several drinks and at Wakonda we have decided to further improve these drinks thanks to the modern knowledge of our interdisciplinary team.

Wakonda is engaged in a series of research projects that aim to bring to the market a wide range of Opuntia-based drinks with different properties: from drinks capable of quickly rehydrating athletes to drinks that help fight numbness of hunger, to stimulating drinks capable of replacing coffee and allowing you to increase concentration, to drinks capable of helping to keep the epithelium of the digestive system healthy. All these projects are in collaboration with members of the business network, universities, and other companies

ANIMAL FEED

The use of Opuntia ficus indica allows the production of animal fodder even in arid and semi-arid areas.

The production of animal feed on a global scale is becoming, due to the increase in meat consumption, a major environmental problem due to the soil erosion it generates, deforestation and the general problems associated with conventional agriculture, such as the shortage of waterfall.

Wakonda’s R&D projects in this area aim to develop a family of feeds and feed ingredients adapted to different species: cattle, sheep, goats, buffalo, horses, pigs and poultry. Our interdisciplinary team has already developed a process of protein enrichment via fermentation and is developing the increase in fat content via fermentation.

The objective is to make an important sector such as livestock farming sustainable from an environmental, social and economic point of view, all while recovering abandoned land.

COSMETICS

Opuntia ficus indica is a mine of compounds for personal care and hygiene.

Opuntia blades contain many substances which, once isolated, can become active ingredients for creams, lotions, balms and cosmetic products. At Wakonda we are developing interdisciplinary research projects with our partner network, focusing on the fractionation of the plant into its distinctive components, in order to develop innovative cosmetics.

In recent years, there has been a growing awareness of the benefits deriving from the use of natural and sustainable ingredients in the production of eco-friendly consumer products free of synthetic ingredients and completely renewable.

The research and development of new components extracted from Opuntia play a fundamental role in satisfying this market demand. Wakonda works with its network of companies and collaborations to search for new ingredients, enhancing Opuntia also in this important market.

ENERGY

Opuntia as a biomass plant is the focus of the Wakonda research and development project.

In the past, the Opuntia ficus indica plant has always been considered a “curiosity” rather than a plant to be exploited industrially. This lack of knowledge has stimulated Wakonda to undertake several research projects aimed at improving its agronomic practices in the field as well as investigating how to improve the energy yield of prickly pear blades for biogas production. The results of the projects have made it possible to innovate the layout of the plant and to mechanize the entire process, from the transplantation of the cladodes to the mechanized harvesting, making it economically convenient to release the energy contained in the plant in an accelerated time compared to conventional projects based on biogas.

All this is summed up in Wakonda’s slogan: 3-4 times more biomass yield per hectare per year compared to corn silage, the most common plant for agro-energy use, and with 10 times less water per unit of biomass produced. In our view, this means increasing the efficiency of land use and the efficiency of water use, thus achieving an “ecological intensification” of the use of agricultural land.

A new line of research just undertaken is the micropropagation of cladodes, a technique that will allow us to rapidly multiply the hectares cultivated with biomass to large numbers, millions of plants, so as to be able to have an expansion of Wakonda in other biogas plants/ biomethane in addition to the first one under construction.

NUTRACEUTICS

Opuntia is a mine of active compounds that help reduce and keep various health-related problems under control. 

At Wakonda we are aware of the opportunities of this plant and are pursuing research programs aimed at capturing this aspect.

Opuntia is a plant used for millennia by the indigenous populations of Central America both as a food and as a healing plant. At Wakonda, thanks to research and development, we combine ancient knowledge on the use of the plant with the most modern techniques of extraction, stabilization and preparation of the attic components of the plant. The projects are in collaboration with universities and other companies in our network.