PURPOSE: To obtain water-soluble polysaccharides and fibers from cactus, by adding water to cactus powder, boiling, cooling and centrifuging the mixture to fractionate the supernatant liquid from the precipitate, and separating the water-soluble polysaccharides from the supernatant liquid and the fibers from the precipitate.

CONSTITUTION: Thorns are removed from the leaves of cactus, and the leaves are washed, sliced, dried with heat, and immediately pulverized to obtain cactus powder. Distilled water is added to the powder, and the water-soluble polysaccharides are extracted under heating. The heating is continued for 1hr after boiling, and the product is cooled to room temperature and fractionated into the supernatant liquid and the precipitate by a refrigerating centrifugal separator. Distilled water is added to the precipitate, and the similar operation is repeated to obtain supernatant liquid and precipitate. The water-soluble polysaccharides and the fibers are separated from the supernatant liquid and the precipitate, respectively.

USE: A food useful as a calcium source and effective to prevent the obesity and constipation, to lower the cholesterol level, and to suppress the toxicity of harmful substance in food.