Published in Scientific Bulletin. Series F. Biotechnologies, Vol. XX
Written by Roxana-Mădălina STOICA, Mișu MOSCOVICI, Caterina TOMULESCU, Narcisa BĂBEANU
Bioactive natural products are a main source of new drugs, functional foods and food additives. Chilli pepper is a very important plant used worldwide as a vegetable, a spice and an external medicine. Capsaicin, the pungent principle of Capsicum sp. (69%) is one of the best-known natural compounds. The extraction of the capsacinoids can be made in many ways, with different types of organic solvents, but the yield varies with peppers variety and the conditions of extraction processing. The use of supercritical fluids, especially carbon dioxide, in the extraction of oleoresins, has increased during the last two decades, because it is a simple, inexpensive, fast, effective and solvent-free sample pretreatment technique in comparison with traditional methods (maceration, Soxhlet). Also, the level of capsaicinoids in the Capsicum fruits can be quantified by organoleptic, spectrophotometry, thin-layer chromatography, gas chromatography and high-performance liquid chromatography methods. Of these, high-pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC) is considered the most reliable and rapid method available for the identification and quantification of capsaicinoids.
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