Potential Anti-Anemic Properties of Red-Fleshed Pitaya (Hylocereus costaricensis)

Anemia is a disorder in which the body’s red blood cells are insufficient to transport oxygen throughout the body. Anemia can be caused by a variety of factors, but iron deficiency anemia is the most common. Hylocereus costaricensis, often known as red-fleshed pitaya, was shown to be naturally high in iron and vitamin C, both of which are required for the production and absorption in both hemoglobin and hematocrit. With this, the present study aimed to know the clinical characteristics of participants and to determine the initial and final hgb and hct of both control and experimental groups. Experimental research design was used as its approach. In this study, 14 people were gathered from various localities around Quezon province. The respondents were chosen through purposive sampling. These participants were separated into two groups: control and experimental. Through percentage, the most common experienced symptoms and history of anemia were determined by the researchers. The Hgb and Hct were determined through automated procedures for accurate results. Results show that the p-value which is much lower than 0.05 indicates that the result is statistically significant. It could be said that there is a significant difference in the Hgb before and after. In the significant difference between the Hct before and Hct, the p-value is much lower than .05 which means that the result is statistically significant. It implies that eating red-fleshed pitaya (Hylocereus costaricensis) for a number of days had a significant effect on the Hct level of the participants. Therefore, red-fleshed pitaya (Hylocereus costaricensis) has probable effects on the level of hemoglobin and hematocrit on the selected participants of the study.