Improved Method for Quantifying Capsaicinoids in Capsicum Using High-performance Liquid Chromatography

Abstract

<jats:p>An improved high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method for analysis of capsaicinoids in dried <jats:italic>Capsicum</jats:italic> fruit powder, involving changes in extraction, mobile phase, flow rate, and excitation and emission spectra and resulting in reduced analysis time, increased sensitivity, and safety, is reported. Extraction of <jats:italic>Capsicum</jats:italic> fruit powder using acetonitrile proved to be the best capsaicinoid extractor in the shortest time interval. Solvents used for HPLC separation and quantification of capsaicinoids include methanol and water at 1 ml·min<jats:sup>–1</jats:sup> flow rate. Instrument sensitivity is enhanced by altering the fluorescence detector excitation and emission wavelengths. Two analytical methods have been developed. One method determines total amount of heat units in 7 minutes, while the other provides total amount of heat units as well as separation of all present major and minor capsaicinoids in 20 minutes. These improved techniques provide inexpensive and rapid methods for quantitative and qualitative analysis of capsaicinoids in <jats:italic>Capsicum</jats:italic> fruit samples along with good sensitivity and no interference or confounding peaks.</jats:p>

Phytochemicals in native Peruvian Capsicum pubescens (Rocoto)

“…Similar values were reported for five [10]. In five other publications dealing with pungency in C. pubescens, concentrations for total capsaicinoids did not fall below or exceeded the range of 2400 and 31,000 SHU [9,[11][12][13][14]28]. While pungency levels of habanero peppers typically range between 200,000 and 300,000 SHU [29], C. pubescens peppers from this study and the other investigations mentioned above had only rather low and at the most of medium pungency.…”

“…High nordihydrocapsaicin content and a high dihydrocapsaicin/capsaicin ratio are characteristics of C. pubescens [2]. Similar capsaicinoid content and patterns were observed in other studies but only for a limited number of one to five C. pubescens varieties [9,[11][12][13][14].…”

Molecular mapping of capsaicinoid biosynthesis genes and quantitative trait loci analysis for capsaicinoid content in Capsicum

“…Capsaicin and dihyrocapsaicin external standards (Sigma, M2028 and M1022, respectively) were prepared as 50 ppm stocks in absolute ethanol. Peak areas of capsaicin and dihydrocapsaicin were converted to ppm as described by Collins et al (1995).…”

Stabilisation of colour and odour of beef patties by using lycopene‐rich tomato and peppers as a source of antioxidants

“…Separation of capsaicin was achieved according two methods, 15,28 with modifications as indicated below, using a Hypersil BDC (C 18 ) column (5 mm, 250 mm  4 mm; Thermo Quest Hypersil Division, Runcorn, UK). The mobile phase was acetonitrile/water (70:30), instead of methanol/water, at a flow rate of 1.0 ml min À1 .…”