Evaluation of traditional genotypes of pepper (Capsicum annuum) for vitamin C content

Characterization and Enhancement of Genetic Resources for the Improvement of Nutritional and Organoleptic Quality in Solanaceae Vegetable Crops

“…Eggplant, on the other side, represented the best source of phenolic acids, mainly chlorogenic acid, which contributes to its high antioxidant activity. These are not surprising results at all, being in agreement with several other works for pepper Sánchez et al, 2018;, tomato Slimestad and Verheul, 2009) and eggplant .…”

“…The large variability observed within each species for all traits studied demonstrates that fruit internal quality is highly dependent on genotype, which is in agreement with several other studies Sánchez et al, 2018). In this way, the highest coefficients of variation in our work were found for sucrose and bioactive compounds (>90%), i.e., chlorogenic acid or myricetin in pepper, naringenin chalcone in tomato and β-carotene in eggplant.…”

“…The most relevant, researched and targeted traits in pepper breeding regarding nutritional content are vitamin C, carotenoids and phenolics (Figure 9). The high antioxidant capacity of pepper fruits is mainly due to their outstanding content in vitamin C Sánchez et al, 2018;. In fact, 100 g fruit portion of most of the varieties studied have been reported to exceed the DRI value of this nutrient, ranking well above other fruits and vegetables commonly known for their vitamin C content, such as orange or kiwi .…”

“…On the other hand, local varieties of vegetables have been associated to the "taste of the past" (Casals et al, 2011;Causse et al, 2010). In this way, they have been reported to produce more flavourful, nutritious fruits than modern varieties in several studies (Casals et al, 2019a;Celmeli et al, 2018;Cortés-Olmos et al, 2014;Medina-Lozano and Díaz, 2021;Meza et al, 2020;Parisi et al, 2017;Sánchez et al, 2018). For instance, the Almagro eggplant landrace showed higher values for protein, vitamin C, glucose and total phenolics compared to commercial cultivars in San .…”

“…A large part of this wide variability has yet to be explored. In recent years, several research groups have been engaged in a comprehensive characterisation of phenotypic and genetic variability within local varieties of tomato (e.g., Carillo et al, 2019;Cortés-Olmos et al, 2014;Csambalik et al, 2017;Sumalan et al, 2020), eggplant (e.g., Boyaci et al, 2015;Cericola et al, 2013;Martínez-Ispizua et al, 2021a;Muñoz-Falcón et al, 2009;Prohens et al, 2003;Vilanova et al, 2014), and pepper (e.g., Martínez-Ispizua et al, 2021b;Parisi et al, 2017;Pereira-Dias et al, 2020Sánchez et al, 2018). This labour has led to a typification of several landraces, which is a first step for their conservation.…”