Determination of Pungent Principles in Capsicum Pepper

Abstract

Capsaicin was isolated from capsicum fruits by n-hexane-60% acetic acid extraction system. UV absorption maxima were found at 281nm(E^1%_1cm=98.8)and 231nm(E^1%_1cm=246)in ethanol, and at 246nm(E^1%_1cm=330)and 295nm(E^1%_1cm=139)in 0.5N NaOH. Modified UV method and standard addition method gave the same determined values. UV method, however, gave the 10% higher capsaicin content than the former two methods. While colorimetric method gave 2 to 3% lower content. The reason why UV method gave higher value was revealed that lower extracting ratio of capasaicin in the process of preparation was employed for the determination.
The correlation coefficient between scoville heat units(S)and the values determined by modified UV method(D)was 0.991. The relation was shown by S=10⁴×(21.79D+0.50).
Threshold level of pungency of capsaicin in 5% sugar solution was 0.04 to 0.05ppm.