2.1. Fruits of red prickly pear plant
The fruits of red prickly pear plant were collected from different
locations of Nobaria region (Beheria governorate at North
West of Delta, Egypt) .The juice of mature fruits was used as
natural source of dyes and anti fungal, anti bacterial agents
against some microorganisms in other studies.
2.2. Extraction
The peeled fruits of red prickly pear were homogenized with an
equal amount of water. The mixture was heated for 5 min at
80 C and quickly cooled on an ice bath until it reached a temperature
of 8–10 C then the extract was centrifuged for 20 min
(Butera et al., 2002).
2.3. Materials
Betalain pigment extracted from red prickly pear was used as a
natural dye; the chemical structure of this pigment is derived
from betalamic acid on the united components to this structure
(Fig. 2).