Forget about hair of the dog. A hangover cure may be locked inside the common prickly pear cactus, researchers said.

The finding came from tests on a group of 55 adults between the ages of 21 and 35 who were given extracts of Opuntia ficus indica, a type of prickly pear cactus, before being fed dinner and told to get drunk.

The men in the study averaged five to six drinks while the women had three to five before they were driven home. They were offered a choice of vodka, gin, rum, bourbon, scotch, or tequila, but told to stick with only one.

Those in the study who received the extract instead of a placebo reported milder hangovers when tested the next morning, according to the research conducted at Tulane University in New Orleans and published in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

The study was funded in part by California-based Extracts Plus Inc., which markets a product with the same extract called "Hangover Prevention Formula." The Veterans Affairs Administration and the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute also financed the study.

Gerald Stefanko, director of communications for Extracts Plus, said the substance drawn from the skin of the prickly pear fruit and used in the study is the same as appears in the commercial product but without the vitamin B that is added to the consumer formula.

Some blame the pounding headache, nausea and other aftereffects of heavy drinking on inflammation caused by impurities in the beverages consumed and on the body's reaction to metabolizing a lot of alcohol, wrote study author Dr. Jeff Wiese of Tulane.

A protein, called C-reactive protein, produced by the liver becomes elevated after injury or trauma and is thought to be involved in inflammation and alcohol hangovers, Wiese wrote.

Those who took the extract before imbibing had 40 percent less C-reactive protein in their bloodstreams compared to those who took a placebo, the report said.

Reference Source 89

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