2014 International Conference on Food and Nutrition Technology

IPCBEE vol. 72 (2014) © (2014) IACSIT Press, Singapore

DOI: 10.7763/IPCBEE. 2014. V72. 1

Assessment of Nutrient Composition and Capsaicinoid Content of

Some Red Chilies

R. Ananthan 1, K. Subash 1 and T. Longvah 1

1
Food Chemistry Division, National Institute of Nutrition, Jamai-Osmania PO, Hyderabad – 500 007, AP.,
India

Abstract. Nutrient composition and capsaicinoid content was studied in six red chili varieties consumed in
India. Protein content in the chili varieties ranged from 0.91–1.59 g%, fat 0.82–1.99 g%, dietary fibre 4.65–
6.15 g% and ash 0.67–0.82 g%. Capsaicinoids content was highest in Naga king chili (0.55 g%) and lowest
in Hathei chili (0.05 g%). Variation in nutrients and bioactive contents was observed among chili varieties.
Naga king chili is unique due to its high capsaicinoids as a potential source for food and health point of view.
Keywords: red chili; Naga king chili; capsaicinoids; proximate; fatty acids; antioxidant capacity

1. Introduction
Red chili (Capsicum sp.) is one of the most widely cultivated spices globally valued for their sensory
attributes of colour, aroma and pungency. Red chilies also contain many other important nutrients and
bioactive substances. The pungent flavor of red chili is due presence of closely related to the alkaloids called
capsaicinoids which is found only in the genus Capsicum [1], [2]. Capsaicin and dihydrocapsaicin are the
two major capsaicinoids accounting for 77-98% pungency in chilies [3]. Daily percapita consumption of
capsaicinoids from chilies in Europe and the United States is estimated at ~1.5 mg and that in India, Mexico
and Thailand at ~25-200 mg [4].
Varieties of chilies with different degree of pungency are cultivated in India, among which, bird’s eye
chili (C. frutescens L.) and fire ball chili (C. annuum L.) are well-known for their pungency. Hathei chili (C.
annuum L.) and Guntur chili (C. annuum L.) are valued more for colour and flavor rather than pungency.
Naga king chili (C. chinense Jacq.) also locally called ‘Naga mircha’/‘Unmarok’/‘Bhut Jolokia’ is another
highly pungent chili from Northeast India which entered the ‘Guinness book of world records’ in the year of
2000 as the world’s hottest chili. To the best of our knowledge, there appear to be no compositional data of
these red chili varieties. Therefore this study was taken up to determine the nutrient composition and
capsaicinoids content of red chili varieties consumed in India.

2. Materials and Methods

2.1. Sample Collection and Preparation
Samples of fresh red chilies were collected from local markets of different places such as Naga king chili
from Kohima in Nagaland; Hathei chili from Sirarakhong in Manipur; big bird’s eye chili and small bird’s
eye chili from Shillong in Meghalaya; fire ball chili from Gangtok in Sikkim, and Guntur chilies from
Guntur in Andhra Pradesh. The stalks were removed from the whole fruits and each variety was minced
separately into fine paste using a food processor (Waring commercial-blender, USA) from which aliquots
were taken for analysis. HPLC grade acetonitrile, methanol, and analytical grade formic acid were procured


Corresponding author. Tel.: + 91-40-27197331; fax: +91-40-27019074.
E-mail address: [email protected]
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from Merck (Merck, India). Capsaicin, dihydrocapsaicin and nordihydrocapsaicin were purchased from
Sigma (St. Louis, MO). All other chemicals were of analytical grade purity.

2.2. Nutrient Analysis

2.2.1. Proximate composition
The Association of Official Analytical Chemists (AOAC) [5] methods were used for analysis of
proximate composition and elemental analysis. Ca, Mg, Fe, Zn, Cu and Mn were determined in a flame
atomic absorption spectrometer (Varian, Spectra AA220). Phosphorus was estimated by the Fiske and
Subbarow method as described in AOAC method (931.01).

2.2.2. Extraction and estimation of capsaicinoid

The capsaicinoid extraction was carried out as described by Kozukue et al. [6] with slight modifications.
Briefly, 2.0±0.05 g fresh chili sample was extracted with methanol at 70 ◦C using water bath for 5 hours.
Final volume was adjusted to 25 mL with methanol and centrifuged at 4000 rpm for 10 min at 1 ◦C. The
supernatant was filtered (0.22 µm syringe nylon filter) and used for analysis of capsaicinoids. Individual
capsaicinoids were analyzed using Agilent-1100 HPLC equipped with auto-sampler and UV-VIS detector.
Waters Symmetry C18 column (250 x 4.6 mm; 5 µm) was used and compounds were detected by UV
detector at 280 nm. Scoville Heat Unit (SHU) was calculated based on the standard values (per 100 g) of
pure capsaicin as 16,000,000, whereas dihydrocapsaicin, nor-dihydrocapsaicin were 15,000,000 and
9,100,000 respectively.

2.3. Statistical Analysis

Descriptive statistics namely, mean and standard deviations were calculated. Pearson’s correlation test
was done to find out the correlation between the two variables using SPSS software.

3. Results and Discussion

3.1. Proximate Composition
Proximate composition of fresh red chili varieties are presented in Table 1. Protein content was lowest in
Guntur chili (0.91 ± 0.02%) and highest in Naga king chili (1.59 ± 0.10%). Among the six chili varieties
analysed here, the lowest fat content was observed in Naga king chili (0.82 ± 0.03 g/100g) which was
significantly (p<0.01) lower than small bird’s eye chili (1.99 ± 0.14 %). The significantly higher amount of
fat content in small bird’s eye chili is due to the high ratio of seed than other fruit components. Ash content
ranged from 0.67 ± 0.02% in Naga king chili to 0.82 ± 0.05% in Guntur chili which is comparable to the ash
content reported in other chili by Uma Pradeep et al. [7]. In the present study, Guntur chili had the highest
total dietary fibre (6.25 ± 0.31 %) which was significantly (p<0.05) higher than the lowest content observed
in Hathei chili (4.15 ± 0.09 g/100g). On the other hand, much higher ash content (1.21-3.03 %) and lower
crude fibre (2.37-4.71%) was reported by Ogunlade et al [8] in four other Capsicum species. Spices are
normally a good source of important minerals and the chili varieties analysed here appears to be rich in Ca, P
and Mg. Naga king chili was found to be rich in iron (1.98 ± 0.13 mg/100g) which is significantly (p<0.05)
higher than other chilies analysed in the study. However Ogunlade et al [8] reported up to 12.93% of iron
content in Capsicum frutescens (Bird pepper).

3.2. Capsaicinoid Content

Capsaicinoid content of six fresh red chilies is given in Table 2. Capsaicin is the most abundant followed
by dihydrocapsaicin and nordihydrocapsaicin in all chilies which is in consonance with findings by other
investigators [9], [10]. Naga king chili recorded the highest capsaicinoid content (0.55 ± 0.15%) followed by
small bird’s eye chili (0.24 ± 0.05%), fire ball chili (0.23 ± 0.02%) and big bird’s eye chili (0.14 ± 0.01%).
Guntur chili and Hathei chili had the lowest capsaicinoid content of 0.05%. In the present study the total
capsaicinoid content of Naga king chili (3.43 g) was shown lower than that reported (5.68 g DW) by Mathur
et al. [11]. However, habenero chili grown under green house condition has been shown to synthesize much
higher capsaicinoids than those grown under field conditions [12]. Capsaicinoid levels have been reported to
depend on the genotype, fruit development and environmental conditions [13] which explain the varying
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amount of capsaicinoids reported in different chili varieties. The mean SHU of dried Naga king chili was
estimated to be 567318 which is lesser than that of 1001304 SHU recorded in the world hottest chili where
the sample harvested from controlled conditions. However, Mathur et al. [11] reported 855000 SHU in Naga
king chili grown in Tezpur, Assam and recently, Sanatombi and Sharma [14] have reported just 329100 SHU
in Naga king chilies grown in Imphal, Manipur. Habenero, Dearbol and Piquin are most popular pungent
chilies measuring with SHU of 200000, 150000 and 60000 respectively [15] but they are much lower than
the SHU (567318) reported for Naga king chili in the present study.
Table 1. Proximate composition and mineral content of red chili varieties

Name of the chili Naga King chili Fire ball chili Big bird’s eye chili Small bird’s eye chili Guntur chili Hathei chili
Proximate composition (g/100g)
Moisture 89.67 ±1.03 89.18 ±1.86 87.84 ±2.06 87.66 ±1.54 88.23 ±1.40 90.00 ±1.42
Protein 1.59 ±0.10 1.48 ±0.02 1.52 ±0.02 1.28 ±0.08 0.91 ±0.02 1.57 ±0.06
Fat 0.82 ±0.03 1.10 ±0.03 1.71 ±0.04 1.99 ±0.14 1.18 ±0.06 0.87 ±0.07
Ash 0.73 ±0.02 0.67 ±0.02 0.82 ±0.05 0.69 ±0.07 0.75 ±0.06 0.78 ±0.04
Soluble Dietary Fiber 0.63 ±0.01 0.68 ±0.05 0.68 ±0.09 0.66 ±0.07 0.73 ±0.07 0.62 ±0.05
Insoluble Dietary Fiber 4.20 ±0.29 4.50 ±0. 28 5.47 ±0.46 5.48 ±0.52 5.52 ±0.50 4.02 ±0.95
Total Dietary Fiber 4.83 ±0.19 5.18 ±0.16 6.15 ±0.21 6.14 ±0.17 6.25 ±0.38 4.65 ±0.09
Carbohydrate 2.36 ±0.07 2.39 ±0.08 1.96 ±0.09 2.24 ±0.08 2.71 ±0.06 2.13 ±0.08
Energy (KJ) 24.44 ±1.03 26.74 ±0.57 30.67 ±0.74 32.45 ±1.81 26.56 ±0.93 23.87 ±1.75
Minerals (mg/100g)
Iron 1.98 ±0.13 0.66 ±0.04 0.48 ±0.06 0.34 ±0.06 0.79 ±0.06 1.08 ±0.07
Zinc 0.11 ±0.01 0.18 ±0.02 0.18 ±0.03 0.15 ±0.03 0.18 ±0.02 0.22 ±0.03
Phosphorus 40.08 ±1.73 55.39 ±2.35 46.69 ±1.59 30.02 ±1.59 34.66 ±0.98 40.16 ±0.21
Copper 0.08 ±0.01 0.13 ±0.06 0.09 ±0.02 0.08 ±0.01 0.16 ±0.01 0.10 ±0.01
Manganese 0.19 ±0.04 0.22 ±0.02 0.13 ±0.01 0.15 ±0.02 0.21 ±0.02 0.30 ±0.02
Calcium 8.79 ±0.95 19.08 ±1.08 20.44 ±1.70 17.93 ±2.35 16.04 ±0.78 16.56 ±1.26
Magnesium 17.59 ±0.97 29.67 ±1.65 28.78 ±1.06 25.05 ±1.48 20.03 ±0.86 24.80 ±0.92
Values are mean ±SD (n=4)

Table 2. Capsaicinoids contents (g/100g) in fresh and dehydrated whole fruits of different red chili varieties

Name of the red chili Capsaicin Dihydro-capsaicin Nordihydro-capsaicin Total capsaicin-oids Scoville Heat Unit#
Naga king chili 0.46 ±0.12 0.09 ±0.02 0.004 ±0.001 0.55 ±0.15 87959

Fire ball chili 0.14 ±0.01 0.09 ±0.01 0.008 ±0.001 0.23 ±0.02 36941

Small bird’s eye chili 0.17 ±0.01 0.07 ±0.02 0.015 ±0.036 0.24 ±0.05 38901

Big bird’s eye chili 0.08 ±0.01 0.05 ±0.01 0.014 ±0.008 0.14 ±0.01 21869
Guntur Chili 0.02 ±0.01 0.02 ±0.01 0.002 ±0.001 0.05 ±0.02 7639
Hathei chili 0.03 ±0.01 0.02 ±0.01 0.002 ±0.001 0.05 ±0.01 7542
#
Values are mean ±SD (n=4); -values are units/100g of samples

4. Conclusion
The study on the nutrient and bioactive substances in chili varieties consumed in India shows the
diversity within the Capsicum species. The varieties of chilies analysed here can be considered to be a good
source of minerals and bioactive compounds. Varietal specific data on nutrient and bioactive substances can
enhance the use of more nutritious variety as well as to make use of specific traits in cultivation. Considering
the importance of capsaicin in health and disease, and its commercial implications in the pharmaceutical and
food industry, Naga king chili offers great potential for future exploitation.

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