Monica Lares

Office

Advising Area

• A-C

Education

P.h.D. Chemistry, UCSC

B.S. Chemistry, Santa Clara University, 

Research

This project centers around the plant, Opuntia ficus-indica (aka prickly pear and nopales), which is native to Mexico and is present on the Mexican flag.  This plant has long been a part of Mexican cuisine.  It has been suggested that this plant can regulate blood glucose levels in diabetics and/or prevent diabetes.

Nopales have been shown to stabilized blood glucose levels in diabetics when consumed with a high carbohydrate breakfast (López-Romero, 2014).  Nopales have also been used as a natural method to treat waste water (Nouj, 2021).  We don’t quite understand either mechanism, but wonder if they are connected.  Questions we have considered are:

1. Can nopales inhibit the breakdown of carbohydrates to glucose?
2. Can something in nopales (mucilage) bind glucose?
3. Do nopales increase the uptake of glucose? (via glucose transporters)?
4. Do nopales increase flux through the pathways in which glucose leaves the body?
5. Do nopales regulate blood glucose levels by a mechanism similar to diabetes drugs?