## 3 Results and Discussion
### Inhibition Assay of \(\alpha\)-amylase and \(\alpha\)-glucosidase  
One of the main enzymes in the human body is \(\alpha\)-amylase, which is in charge of the hydrolysis of starch, by producing oligosaccharides and disaccharides. Then, \(\alpha\)-glucosidase hydrolyzes them into monosaccharides to be absorbed in the small intestine, increasing the level of blood glucose a few hours after food intake. Some extract from plants or fruits were reported as \(\alpha\)-amylase inhibitors. The mechanism of inhibition could be related to the site of carbohydrate-binding and the enzymes, which catalyze the hydrolysis of the internal \(\alpha\)-1, 4 glucosidic linkages in starch [25]. The results of the evaluation of the percentage of inhibition of the four prepared extracts on the activity of \(\alpha\)-amylase were significantly different (p \(<\) 0.05) and are shown in Table 2. [PERSON] et al. [26] reported the same phenomenon in the inhibition of \(\alpha\)-amylase in in vitro assay due to the content of anthocyanins of the fruits of cultivated _Lycium ruthenium_ Murray. WFE extracts had the highest percentage of inhibition of 70% at 25 mg/mL. Inhibition of the \(\alpha\)-amylase activity of 90% was seen with the extract of the leaves of _Tamarindus indicia_[27]. [PERSON] et al. [28] found 65% as the maximum inhibition when it was tested in the _Physalis peruviana_ L. extract. Natural polyphenols have been reported to inhibit the activity of carbohydrate hydrolyzing enzymes like \(\alpha\)-amylase and \(\alpha\)-glucosidase [29; 30; 31; 32]; however, even pericarp extracts had 2.23 \(\pm\) 0.01 mg GAE/g of phenol and 0.84 \(\pm\) 0.14 mg QE/g flavonoid contents, while WFE presented 1.52 \(\pm\) 0.04 mg GAE/g and 0.84 \(\pm\) 0.14 mg QE/g. The inhibition of \(\alpha\)-amylase and \(\alpha\)-glucosidase was higher in the whole fruit extract. The results of cactus acid fruit extracts indicate high \(\alpha\)-glucosidase inhibitory activities with significant differences (p \(<\) 0.05). The pericarp and whole fruit extracts showed inhibition percentages of 46.04 + 2.56% and 52.11 + 1.35%, respectively, at the concentration of 30 mg/mL (Table 3). \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c} \hline \hline \multicolumn{5}{c}{\(\alpha\)-amylase Inhibition (\%)} \\ \hline
**CAFE mg/mL** & **Endocarp** & **Mesocarp** & **Pericarp** & **Whole Fruit** \\ \hline
5 & 32.19 \(\pm\) 0.96\({}^{\text{a}}\)A & 36.72 \(\pm\) 2.23\({}^{\text{aB}}\) & 37.97 \(\pm\) 1.41\({}^{\text{aB}}\) & 34.77 \(\pm\) 0.21\({}^{\text{aA}}\) \\
10 & 43.95 \(\pm\) 1.02\({}^{\text{aA}}\) & 48.29 \(\pm\) 2.55\({}^{\text{bB}}\) & 43.79 \(\pm\) 0.38\({}^{\text{bA}}\) & 49.81 \(\pm\) 2.39\({}^{\text{bB}}\) \\
15 & 54.03 \(\pm\) 0.18\({}^{\text{cB}}\) & 50.97 \(\pm\) 1.79\({}^{\text{bC}}\) & 56.39 \(\pm\) 1.22\({}^{\text{cB}}\) & 5540 \(\pm\) 1.08\({}^{\text{cB}}\) \\
20 & 56.06 \(\pm\) 0.14\({}^{\text{cA}}\) & 54.01 \(\pm\) 1.44\({}^{\text{cA}}\) & 59.05 \(\pm\) 1.65\({}^{\text{cdB}}\) & 64.66 \(\pm\) 2.59\({}^{\text{cB}}\) \\
25 & 58.38 \(\pm\) 0.27\({}^{\text{Da}}\) & 58.65 \(\pm\) 1.01\({}^{\text{dA}}\) & 61.46 \(\pm\) 2.14\({}^{\text{dA}}\) & 70.40 \(\pm\) 1.83\({}^{\text{eB}}\) \\
30 & 60.88 \(\pm\) 0.66\({}^{\text{eA}}\) & 59.46 \(\pm\) 0.56\({}^{\text{dA}}\) & 66.62 \(\pm\) 2.70\({}^{\text{eB}}\) & 72.29 \(\pm\) 2.66\({}^{\text{eC}}\) \\
35 & 63.91 \(\pm\) 1.07\({}^{\text{Ea}}\) & 62.60 \(\pm\) 0.80\({}^{\text{deA}}\) & 67.51 \(\pm\) 3.33\({}^{\text{eB}}\) & 72.35 \(\pm\) 2.15\({}^{\text{eC}}\) \\
40 & 63.88 \(\pm\) 1.80\({}^{\text{Ea}}\) & 63.08 \(\pm\) 1.52\({}^{\text{eA}}\) & 67.80 \(\pm\) 3.05\({}^{\text{eB}}\) & 71.83 \(\pm\) 0.73\({}^{\text{eC}}\) \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}  
\({}^{\text{a}}\)Cactus Acid Fruit Extracts (CAFE). The lowercase letters in columns represent significant differences (p \(<\) 0.05) between concentrations of the samples, the capital letters in role indicate significant differences (p \(<\) 0.05) between the different parts of the fruit.  
\end{table}