The sturdy prickly pear cactus that serves in Malta mostly as a wind breaker in fields is hitting the headlines around the world.

According to a study carried out by Jeff Wiese, associate professor of medicine at Tulane University Health Sciences Centre in New Orleans, an extract produced in Malta from the skin of the prickly pear can help prevent hangovers.

Results of the study by Dr Wiese were published in the June 28 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine. The study was funded by Extracts Plus, the American agents of the prickly pear extract made by ICP Ltd - the Institute of Cellular Pharmacology operating at the Mosta Technopark.

The findings by Dr Wiese were picked up by Reuters, and Associated Press among other news agencies, and wired all over the world.

ICP Ltd and its French partner Gilles Guitarrez, have discovered different properties in the skin of the prickly pear fruit - the properties help invigorate people after strenuous activities. The research by ICP on prickly pear had been going on since 1998.

ICP freeze dries prickly pear skins and from them separates an extract that is marketed as TEX-EO. A natural food, the extract is exported and turned into capsules used by persons who participate in physically and mentally demanding sports, including car rallying, scuba diving and mountain walking.

The capsules made from the extract sell in Europe under the name Preservation, and in the US as Prepare.

When contacted, Charles Saliba, ICP Ltd managing director said: "Such studies and the publication of the findings take quite a long time. However, now that the study by Dr Wiese has shown that the extract can be used to avoid hangovers, ICP expects export orders to go up."

Asked whether the company would be able to get prickly pears in sufficient quantities to get enough of the valuable extract to meet demand, Mr Saliba said if need be they would import the fruit.

"The fruit has to be tested free of heavy metals, pesticides and other toxins, according to international guidelines.

"The firm regularly monitors the fruit of the plant and the soil in many areas around the country to know which fruit is safe to get the extract from," Mr Saliba explained.

ICP Ltd uses hundreds of tons of prickly pears annually.

To get the same effect of one capsule of the extract, one would have to eat about six tons of prickly pear fruit because it is extremely difficult for the human body to separate the extract from the cellulose in the plant.

"The skin is freeze dried containing one per cent of dry matter which, in practice, means that one hundred kilos of prickly pears would produce one kilo of raw material when freeze dried," Mr Saliba explained.

As part of the study, Dr Wiese and his colleagues recruited 55 people aged 21 to 35. None of the volunteers was a smoker and all had reported having had at least one hangover throughout their life.

The experiment involved a control group and participants were randomly assigned to the supplement group and to the placebo group.

The supplement group were given two capsules filled with 800 international units of the prickly pear extract. Both groups were directed to take their capsules five hours before drinking.

Over a four-hour period, they were then asked to take about five to six drinks. According to previous studies this amount of alcohol was enough to produce a hangover. The participants could choose from vodka, gin, rum, tequila, bourbon or scotch.

The results of the study indicated that prickly pear extract reduced three symptoms of hangover - nausea, dry mouth and loss of appetite.

Soon after the story of these findings broke on the international media, the ICP Ltd website got more hits in one day than it was getting in one month, Mr Saliba noted.

"Dr Wiese is renowned for cognitive studies on reaction time and short term memory in humans under stress.

"At the moment Dr Wiese is carrying out studies with soldiers engaged in war to check out the levels of combat stress. This is where hopefully the prickly pear extract could come into use as well.

"It is still premature, however, to say what the results would be although this is where medical science seems to be heading," Mr Saliba added.