Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Secondary Metabolites of Capsicum Species and Their Importance in the Human Diet

2013; American Chemical Society; Volume: 76; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1021/np300898z

1520-6025

Yuni Wahyuni, Ana‐Rosa Ballester, Enny Sudarmonowati, R.J. Bino, Arnaud Bovy,

Piperaceae Chemical and Biological Studies

The genus Capsicum (pepper) comprises a large number of wild and cultivated species. The plants are grown all over the world, primarily in tropical and subtropical countries. The fruits are an excellent source of health-related compounds, such as ascorbic acid (vitamin C), carotenoids (provitamin A), tocopherols (vitamin E), flavonoids, and capsaicinoids. Pepper fruits have been used for fresh and cooked consumption, as well as for medicinal purposes, such as treatment of asthma, coughs, sore throats, and toothache. Depending on its uses, there are several main characters important for product quality; pungency, bright attractive colors, highly concentrated extracts, and a small number of seeds are the main characters on which quality is based and priced. Herein, a general overview of biochemical composition, medical properties of these compounds, and characteristics of quality attributes of pepper fruits is presented.