Opuntia stricta Haw. is considered as one of the most common cactus plant growing in Tunisia. Extracting valuable compounds from its fruit peel, considered as by-product, is drawing more and more attention, making it on the verge of commercialization. Water-soluble polysaccharides were extracted from Opuntia stricta Haw. peels, and their chemical composi­tion assessed using thin layer chromatography. The antioxidant activities of the extracted polysaccharides were assessed using 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl free radical scavenging activity, total antioxidant activity and reducing power capacity. The extrac­tion yield of water-soluble polysaccharides was 7.53±0.86%. The chemical composition revealed the presence of rhamnose, ara­binose, glucose, mannose, galactose and galacturonic acid. The infrared spectroscopic analysis showed a similar structure to that of Opuntia ficus-indica polysaccharide peels. Additionally, the extracted polysaccharides exhibited high antioxidant activities. In fact, the free radical scavenging activity (half inhibition con­centration = 6.5 mg ml-1 with 94.9% inhibition at 50 mg ml^-1), the total antioxidant activity (100 μg ascorbic acid equivalent at 50 mg polysaccharides) and the reducing power capacity (absorbance 700 nm = 0.7 at 50 mg ml^-1), appeared to be interesting compared to natural and synthetic antioxidants. Therefore, water-soluble polysaccharides from Opuntia stricta Haw. fruit peels could be a natural