Antioxidant contents of pepper Capsicum spp. for use in biofortification

Natural potential of bioactive compounds accumulated by plants is often not taken into account in particular breeding. Biofortification, the enrichment of basic food crops with essential vitamins and minerals using breeding, is one of the most notable recent innovations in agriculture. In this paper, we studied pigment composition with regard to the amount of carotenoids and their contribution to fruit coloration in 20 accessions of different species of genus Capsicum. Red and yellow pigment levels and their ratios detected in the study were indicative of the carotenoid composition in fruits of each species. Also the varieties differed significantly in the carotenoid accumulation. In temperate climate of Moscow region the highest amount of pigments was found in the sweet variety Shokoladnyi ( C. annuum ; 0.536 mg/g), and in the spice varieties Purpurnyi tigr ( C. annuum ; 0.708 mg/g), Kitaiskii fonarik ( C. baccatum ; 0,685 mg/g), Ideya ( C. annuum ; 0.629 mg/g) and Chudo Podmoskov’ya ( C. annuum ; 0.628mg/g). The highest level of ascorbic acid was accumulated by chili pepper Ideya ( C. annuum ; 414 mg%), Rozhdestvenskii buket ( C. annuum ½ C. frutescens ; 370 mg%), Yubileinyi VNIISSOK ( C. annuum ; 326 mg%), and Ognennaya deva ( C. chinense ; 301 mg%). The ascorbic acid content did not depend on fruit color and plant species. Among the sweet pepper varieties high total antioxidant content (TAC) was characteristic of hybrid F1 Oranzhevoe naslazhdenie ( C. annuum). The maximum total antioxidant amounts, as milligram equivalents (MME) of gallic acid per g, were 2.82 for Rozhdestvenskii buket ( C. annuum ½ C. frutescens ), 2.65 for Ognennaya deva ( C. chinense ), 2.57 for Idea ( C. annuum ), and 2.19 for Kitaiskii fonarik ( C. annuum ). In assessment of thermostable antioxidants extracted with 80 % ethanol at 60 °С it was shown that the unstable antioxidants, mainly ascorbic acid, averaged 16 % of the total antioxidants. Rozhdestvensciy buket, Kitaiskii fonarik, Purpurnyi tigr, Ognennaya deva plants, additionally to antioxidants, can accumulate one of the strongest natural antioxidant, the capsaicin, which determines their hot taste. The capsaicin content of the studied chili peppers varied from 1.36 to 9.57 mg/g of dry weight. High contents of carotenoids, ascorbic acid and TAC combined with capsaicin at 8 to 9 score points increase the total antioxidant capacity of these samples.