A woman drinks beer during the Munich Oktoberfest. (AFP)

Chicago, June 29 (Reuters): Forget about hair of the dog. A hangover cure may be locked inside the common prickly pear cactus, researchers said yesterday.

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.

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 metabolisng 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 per cent less C-reactive protein in their bloodstreams compared to those who took a placebo.