Carotenoid and total vitamin C content of peppers from selected Brazilian cultivars

Carotenoid and ascorbic acid content was determined in peppers of two red cultivars and three yellow lineages of Jalapeno (Capsicum annuum L.) plus a sweet red biquinho and a red bode cultivar (C. chinense Jacquin) from the Brazilian Breeding Program. Capsanthin (68 +/- 3 to 177 +/- 2 mu g/g) was found to be the main carotenoid in the red peppers, and violaxanthin (34 +/- 3 to 100 +/- 17 mu g/g), was the main carotenoid in the yellow jalapefio peppers. Red jalapefio peppers grown in the field (in summer) showed higher zeaxanthin (29 +/- 0 and 31 +/- 2 mu g/g), beta-cryptoxanthin (11 +/- 1 and 7 +/- 0 mu g/g), provitamin A (161 +/- 2 and 81 +/- 21 mu g/g) and ascorbic acid (132 +/- 2 and 129 +/- 2 mu g/g) than peppers grown in the greenhouse. Peppers of one yellow jalapefio lineage (C annuum) and of the red bode cultivar (C chinense) also stood out for their very high levels of zeaxanthin (36 +/- 6 and 53 +/- 7 mu g/g), besides nutritional compounds, provitamin A (222 +/- 17 and 299 +/- 32 retinol activity equivalents/100 g) and vitamin C (152 +/- 5 and 123 +/- 1 mg/100 g). These results indicate that. the selected peppers presented compounds that are beneficial for human health and that they could be used in the Brazilian pepper breeding programs to develop new commercial hybrids. (C) 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.