Hot Chili Peppers:: Extraction, Cleanup, and Measurement of Capsaicin

• Jiping Huang ^[1] ; Scott A. Mabury ^[1] ; John C. Sagebiel ^[2]
  1. [1] University of Toronto

     University of Toronto

     Canadá

     
  2. [2] Desert Research Institute

     Desert Research Institute

     Estados Unidos

     
• Localización: Journal of chemical education, ISSN 0021-9584, Vol. 77, Nº 12 (December), 2000, págs. 1630-1630
• Idioma: inglés
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen

  • Capsaicin, the pungent ingredient of the red pepper or Capsicum annuum, is widely used in food preparation. The purpose of this experiment was to acquaint students with the active ingredients of hot chili pepper (capsaicin and dihydrocapsaicin), the extraction, cleanup, and analysis of these chemicals, as a fun and informative analytical exercise. Fresh peppers were prepared and extracted with acetonitrile, removing plant co-extractives by addition to a C-18 solid-phase extraction cartridge. Elution of the capsaicinoids was accomplished with a methanol-acetic acid solution. Analysis was completed by reverse-phase HPLC with diode-array or variable wavelength detection and calibration with external standards. Levels of capsaicin and dihydrocapsaicin were typically found to correlate with literature values for a specific hot pepper variety. Students particularly enjoyed relating concentrations of capsaicinoids to their perceived valuation of "hotness".