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Phytochemicals in native Peruvian Capsicum pubescens (Rocoto)

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Abstract

Peru is considered a hotspot with maybe the highest diversity of domesticated chili peppers. Capsicum pubescens is the least explored domesticated chili pepper, especially with regard to its chemical composition. Thirty-two different C. pubescens (Rocoto) accessions, out of the national Peruvian Capsicum germplasm collection at the Instituto Nacional de Innovación Agraria, were selected for investigating the phytochemical content and its variability. After drying and milling, the fruits were analyzed for the three major capsaicinoids (capsaicin, dihydrocapsaicin and nordihydrocapsaicin), flavonoid aglycons (quercetin, kaempferol, luteolin, apigenin), total polyphenol content, antioxidant capacity, tocopherol (α-, β- and γ-) content, fat content, ascorbic acid content, surface color and extractable color. The concentrations for selected traits ranged as follows: total capsaicinoids from 55 to 410 mg/100 g (corresponding to ca. 8400–60,000 SHU), total polyphenols from 1.8 to 2.5 g gallic acid equivalents/100 g, antioxidant capacity from 2.4 to 4.6 mmol Trolox/100 g and tocopherols from 6.8 to 18.4 mg/100 g. Only very few of the accessions contained detectable amounts of the major chili flavonoid quercetin. The results indicate that C. pubescens is generally less diverse and exhibits a lower content of almost all analyzed traits when compared to 147 Peruvian chili pepper accessions belonging to the other four domesticated species.

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Acknowledgment

This work was carried out within the international and interdisciplinary research project “Rescue and Promotion of Native Chilies in their Centre of Origin,” led by Bioversity International and funded by the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development through Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit, GIZ (2010–2013). We thank Jorge Medina from INIA Peru for growing the C. pubescens accessions and harvesting the fruits. We are also grateful to Christina Schroeders, Matthias Luepertz, Désirée Marquenie, Frederik Lessmann and Yvonne Rockser for laboratory assistance in the NIR analyses.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Food Chemistry, University of Wuppertal, Gaussstrasse 20, 42119, Wuppertal, Germany

    Sven W. Meckelmann, Christian Jansen, Dieter W. Riegel, Llermé Ríos, Erika Mueller-Seitz & Michael Petz

  2. Bioversity International, Regional Office for the Americas, c/o CATIE 7170, Turrialba, Costa Rica

    Maarten van Zonneveld

  3. Instituto Nacional de Innovación Agraria (INIA), Av. La Molina # 1981, Lima, Peru

    Llermé Ríos & Karla Peña

Authors
  1. Sven W. Meckelmann
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  2. Christian Jansen
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  3. Dieter W. Riegel
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Correspondence to Sven W. Meckelmann.

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Meckelmann, S.W., Jansen, C., Riegel, D.W. et al. Phytochemicals in native Peruvian Capsicum pubescens (Rocoto). Eur Food Res Technol 241, 817–825 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00217-015-2506-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00217-015-2506-y

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