Opuntia yellow fruit; the 'Madeira' with large red fruit; and the small, firm 'spiny red'.Tungi also gives its name to a local Spirit distilled at The St Helena distillery at Alarm Forest, the most remote distillery in the world, made entirely from the opuntia cactus. "Opuntia" contains a range of phytochemicals in variable quantities, such as polyphenols, dietary minerals and betalains. Identified compounds under basic research include gallic acid, vanillic acid and catechins, as examples. The Sicilian prickly pear contains betalain, betanin, and indicaxanthin, with highest levels in their fruits. In Mexican folk medicine, its pulp and juice are considered treatments
Opuntia readily between species. This can make classification difficult, yielding a reticulate phylogeny where different species come together in hybridization. Also, not all species listed here may actually belong in this genus, meaning that "Opuntia" is not a monophyletic group. "Opuntia" also has a tendency for polyploidy. The ancestral diploid state was 2n=22, but many species are hexaploid (6n = 66) or octaploid (8n = 88). Chollas, now recognized to belong to the distinct genus "Cylindropuntia", are distinguished by having cylindrical, rather than flattened, stem segments with large barbed spines. The stem joints of several species, notably the jumping cholla ("Cylindropuntia