FRUIT COMPOSITION, TISSUES, AND LOCALIZATION OF ANTIOXIDANTS AND CAPSAICINOIDS IN CAPSICUM PEPPERS BY FLUORESCENCE MICROSCOPY
Capsicum peppers are a fair proportion of total vegetables consumed in daily diets around the world.
Whether the pepper type is non-pungent or spicy, the nutritional contribution of peppers to diet and human health is significant.
However, the selectivity among seeds, carpal and placental tissues or pericarp tissues, makes a difference in the product harvest and quality of antioxidants and capsaicin.
Despite documentary evidence of differences in nutritional status among pepper types, results that qualitatively compare capsaicin or antioxidant levels in different pepper fruit tissues are scarce.
Analyses of microscopic images of varieties of tissues of pepper fruits were carried out with equipment at the Microscopic Imaging Laboratory at the Eastern Regional Research Center (ERRC), Wyndmoor, PA. Various other biochemical tests were carried out at the ERRC and Delaware State University to characterize capsaicinoids, antioxidants, and other biomolecules.
Major differences were found among types and varieties. Work is continuing to characterize the tissue concentration and distribution of antioxidant and capsaicin contents in seeds, placental and pericarp tissues, especially in comparing non-pungent and pungent pepper types.
Fluorescence images show significant differences among seeds, placenta, and pericarps.
Most comparisons limit their discussion to capsaicin, but capsaicinoids and other important biomolecules exist, and their incidence needs better characterization.
Fluorescence microscopy provides measures of these compounds and quantifies nutritional contents; results help in developing a more complete picture of the contribution of peppers to human health and nutrition.
These characterizations using fluorescence microscopy are presented in this paper.
Broderick, C.E. and Cooke, P.H. (2009). FRUIT COMPOSITION, TISSUES, AND LOCALIZATION OF ANTIOXIDANTS AND CAPSAICINOIDS IN CAPSICUM PEPPERS BY FLUORESCENCE MICROSCOPY. Acta Hortic. 841, 85-90
DOI: 10.17660/ActaHortic.2009.841.7
https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2009.841.7
DOI: 10.17660/ActaHortic.2009.841.7
https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2009.841.7
Capsicum peppers, fluorescence imaging, vesicles, placental epidermis, human health, nutrition
English