Welcome to BarbaryFigs.com. The barbary fig (or prickly pear), eaten as a fruit or used for animal feed, is now also creating a small economic miracle in Morocco thanks to new health and cosmetic products being extracted from the plant.

Barbary figs flower in three distinct colors: white, yellow and red. The succulent fruits are typically eaten, minus the thick outer skin, after chilling in a refrigerator for a few hours. They have a taste similar to a sweet, juicy watermelon, very refreshing on a hot summer day.

As well as Morocco, areas with significant barbary fig growing cultivation include Algeria, Brazil, Chile, Egypt, Israel, Mexico, Saudia Arabia and Sicily. In fact, in the early 1900s, the prickly pear fruit was imported from Sicily and other Mediterranean countries to the United States to satisfy the growing population of immigrants arriving from Italy and Greece.

Now farmers in Morocco are processing the ripe prickly pear fruits for the French cosmetics industry which are using barbary figs in increasing numbers of products. The seeds, the most lucrative part of the plant, are ground to produce an oil that is used to make anti-ageing face creams. This oil from barbary figs is now used in more than 40 different cosmetic products and sells at a very high price as pure skin oil.

The plant is also said to help with high blood pressure and cancer. The pulp of the fruit has been found to lower cholesterol, parts of the stem are ground into a powder and the flowers can be used to flavour vinegar. European laboratories are also developing the use of barbary figs for slimming.

No wonder that very little of the plant is now left over for animal feed!

If you would like to own the domain name, BarbaryFigs.com, is available for purchase. Thank you.