Soil improvement with the addition of natural materials, such as cactus mucilage

Sleyther Arturo De La Cruz Vega; Cristian Milton Mendoza Flores; Kevin Arturo Ascoy Flores; Ccori Siello Vega Neyra

doi:10.22630/srees.10861

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Soil improvement with the addition of natural materials, such as cactus mucilage

Scientific Review Engineering and Environmental Sciences

Volume 35 (2026): Issue 1 (March 2026)

By: Sleyther Arturo De La Cruz Vega , Cristian Milton Mendoza Flores , Kevin Arturo Ascoy Flores and Ccori Siello Vega Neyra

Open Access

|Mar 2026

Figures & Tables

Regions where cactus mucilage is used for soil compactionSource: own work.

Liquid limit of the soil sampleSource: own work.

Comparative graph of dry density values of soil with cactus mucilage (CM)Source: own work.

Composition of cactus mucilage obtained by X-ray fluorescence spectrometry at a sample’ moisture content of 96_43%

Content of the chemical elements	Value [%]	Content of the oxides	Value [%]
Potassium (K)	1.7810	Potassium oxide (K₂O)	2.6042
Calcium (Ca)	0.8190	Magnesium oxide (MgO)	0.6014
Magnesium (Mg)	0.5913	Calcium oxide (CaO)	0.3110
Chlorine (Cl)	0.2883	Phosphorus pentoxide (P₂O₅)	0.0372
Phosphorus (P)	0.0402	Phosphorus pentoxide (P₂O₅)	0.0372
Sulfur (S)	0.0333	Chlorine (Cl)	0.0040
Iron (Fe)	0.0050	Iron oxide (Fe₂O₃)	0.0033
Zinc (Zn)	0.0034	Sulfur trioxide (SO₃)	0.0024
Manganese (Mn)	0.0031	Manganese oxide (MnO)	0.0017
Copper (Cu)	0.0019	Zinc oxide (ZnO)	0.0008

Shapiro–Wilk normality test results

Content of cactus mucilage [%]	W statistic	p	Normal distribution?
0	0.8925	0.3948	yes
4	0.8604	0.2616	yes
6	0.9281	0.5835	yes
8	0.9736	0.8636	yes

Properties of cactus mucilage

Property	Value
Viscosity	1,087.9 cSt
Density	0.9948 g·cm⁻³
Potential of hydrogen (pH)	4.61

Analysis of variance (ANOVA)

Source of variation	Sum of squares (SS)	Degrees of freedom (df)	Mean square (MS)	F	p
Between groups	0.1183	3	0.03940	8.37	0.0028
Within groups	0.0565	12	0.00471	–	–
Total	0.1748	15	–	–	–

Names of cactus mucilage used in other countries

Scientific name	Country	Plant common name	Mucilage common name
Opuntia ficus-indica	Mexico	Nopal	Nopal mucilage
	Peru	Cactus	Cactus mucilage
	Argentina	Tuna	Prickly pear mucilage
	Chile	Tuna
	Ecuador	Tuna
	Bolivia	Tuna
Opuntia spp.	United States	Nopal	Nopal mucilage
	Colombia	Nopal
	Venezuela	Nopal

Statistical indicators (SD, SEM, CI)

Cactus mucilage dosage [%]	Mean [g·cm⁻³]	SD	SEM	95% CI
0	1.84	0.010	0.006	1.828–1.852
4	1.85	0.015	0.009	1.833–1.867
6	1.90	0.020	0.012	1.876–1.924
8	1.78	0.018	0.010	1.760–1.800

Granulometry of the soil sample

Sieve	Mesh [mm]	Weight [g]	Soil retained [%]	Cumulative of soil retained [%]	Soil passing [%]
3″	76.200	0	0	0	100
2″	50.800	0	0	0	100
1 1/2″	38.100	0	0	0	100
1″	25.400	52.308	1.74	1.74	98.26
3/4″	19.050	34.808	1.16	2.90	97.10
1/2″	12.700	90.288	3.01	5.91	94.09
3/8″	9.525	42.478	1.42	7.33	92.67
1/4″	6.350	109.378	3.65	10.98	89.02
No 4	4.760	93.048	3.10	14.08	85.92
No 8	2.380	494.968	16.50	30.58	69.42
No 16	1.190	567.208	18.91	49.48	50.52
No 30	0.595	537.688	17.92	67.41	32.59
No 50	0.297	489.528	16.32	83.72	16.28
No 100	0.150	376.848	12.56	96.29	3.71
No 200	0.075	98.928	3.30	99.58	0.42
Bottom	–	12.518	0.42	100	–
	Total	2,999.994

References

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Articles in this issue

DOI: https://doi.org/10.22630/srees.10861 | Journal eISSN: 2543-7496 | Journal ISSN: 1732-9353

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Language: English

Page range: 3 - 19

Submitted on: Oct 8, 2025

Accepted on: Dec 19, 2025

Published on: Mar 31, 2026

Published by: Warsaw University of Life Sciences - SGGW Press

In partnership with: Paradigm Publishing Services

Keywords:

addition,

standard Proctor,

soil,

cactus mucilage

Related subjects:

Architecture and design,

Architecture,

Architects, buildings,

Geosciences,

Geosciences, other,

Engineering,

Mechanical engineering,

Fundamentals of mechanical engineering,

Geosciences,

Geology and mineralogy

© 2026 Sleyther Arturo De La Cruz Vega, Cristian Milton Mendoza Flores, Kevin Arturo Ascoy Flores, Ccori Siello Vega Neyra, published by Warsaw University of Life Sciences - SGGW Press
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License.

Volume 35 (2026): Issue 1 (March 2026)

Soil improvement with the addition of natural materials, such as cactus mucilage

Figures & Tables

FIGURE 1.

FIGURE 2.

FIGURE 3.

FIGURE 4.

Composition of cactus mucilage obtained by X-ray fluorescence spectrometry at a sample’ moisture content of 96_43%

Shapiro–Wilk normality test results

Properties of cactus mucilage

Analysis of variance (ANOVA)

Names of cactus mucilage used in other countries

Statistical indicators (SD, SEM, CI)

Granulometry of the soil sample

Paradigm

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