Capsaicin Content and Pungency of Different Capsicum spp. Cultivars

Six chilli cultivars belonging to three species of Capsicum: Capsicum annuum L. (cvs ‘Meiteimorok’ and ‘Haomorok’), Capsicum frutescens L. (cvs ‘Uchithi’ and ‘Mashingkha’) and Capsicum chinense Jacq. (cvs ‘Umorok’ and ‘Chiengpi’) are economically important food crops. The capsaicin content and pungency in scoville heat unit (SHU) of these six chilli cultivars were determined by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The capsaicin content and pungency of the chillies varied depending upon the genotype. Among the six chilli cultivars studied, the cultivar ‘Umorok’ had the highest capsaicin content (2.06%), and was also the most pungent of with 329.100 SHU while the cultivar ‘Haomorok’ had the least capsaicin content (0.17%) with a corresponding pungency of 26.000 SHU.