title: Secondary metabolites of Capsicum species and their importance in the human diet.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Wageningen UR Plant Breeding, 6708 PB Wageningen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Yuni
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wahyuni
authors.forename: Ana-Rosa
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Ballester
authors.forename: Enny
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Sudarmonowati
authors.forename: Raoul J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Bino
authors.forename: Arnaud G
authors.initials: AG
authors.lastname: Bovy
mesh_terms: D002211:Capsaicin / Q000031:analogs & derivatives / Q000737:chemistry; D002212:Capsicum / Q000737:chemistry*; D002338:Carotenoids / Q000378:metabolism; D004032:Diet; D005419:Flavonoids / Q000378:metabolism; D005638:Fruit / Q000737:chemistry; D006801:Humans; D024505:Tocopherols / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D005419:Flavonoids; D002338:Carotenoids; D024505:Tocopherols; D002211:Capsaicin