Bioactive Compounds and Antioxidant Capacity of Valencian Pepper Landraces.

Eva Martínez-Ispizua,José Vicente Valcárcel,Ángeles Calatayud,María José Díez,Mary-Rus Martínez-Cuenca,José Ignacio Marsal,Salvador Soler

doi:10.3390/molecules26041031

Eva Martínez-Ispizua, José Vicente Valcárcel + Show 5 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules26041031

Copy DOI

Abstract

Sweet pepper is one of the most important economic fruits with nutritional attributes. In this sense, the nutraceutical value of consumed products is a major concern nowadays so the content of some bioactive compounds and antioxidants (phenols, ascorbic acid, lycopene, carotenoids, chlorophylls, and antioxidant activity) was monitored in 18 sweet pepper landraces at two maturity stages (green and red). All the traits except chlorophylls significantly increased in red fruits (between 1.5- and 2.3-fold for phenols, ascorbic acid, and 2-2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) inhibition activity, 4.8-fold for carotenoid and 27.4-fold for lycopene content), which suggests that ripening is key for obtaining desired fruit quality. Among landraces, P-44 in green fruits is highlighted for its content in carotenoids, chlorophylls, phenols, and ascorbic acid, and P-46 for its antioxidant capacity and lycopene content. Upon maturity, P-48, P-44, and P-41 presented higher levels of phenols and lycopene, and P-39 of phenols, carotenoid, and DPPH. This work reflects a wide variability in the 18 pepper landraces at bioactive compounds concentration and in relation to fruit ripeness. The importance of traditional landraces in terms of organoleptic properties is emphasized as they are the main source of agricultural biodiversity today and could be helpful for breeders to develop new functional pepper varieties.

Highlights

The key role of diet in preventing illnesses has long been recognized, and people have become more careful with the food they choose to consume by seeking foods with higher nutritional values [1]
The mean values ranged between 6.74 and 11.74 mg g−1 FW in red fruits (Figure 2B) and decreased between 2.88 and 6.25 mg g−1 FW in green ones (Figure 2A), which are higher than those reported by several authors [4,20,25,26] for red peppers, but similar to those found by Chavez-Mendoza et al [22] and Sun et al [27]
All these findings indicate a marked dependence of this compound on landrace, which agrees with other studies carried out on traditional pepper varieties [30,61,62]

Summary

Introduction

The key role of diet in preventing illnesses has long been recognized, and people have become more careful with the food they choose to consume by seeking foods with higher nutritional values [1] This is why many recent research works have focused on the determination and quantification of important bioactive compounds present in plant and food materials. An opposite trend has recently been set by consumers, who have voiced concern about the organoleptic quality and nutritional value of local products [8,9] This has led to an increase in the number of research studies that focus on bioactive compound extraction from fruit and vegetables, while studying their impact on the human body [10]

Objectives

Results

Discussion

Conclusion