Highly pungent capsicum varieties have higher antioxidant property

A team of Indian researchers from the School of Life Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University and other institutions has successfully decoded the molecular basis of extreme fiery hot (pungency) property of Bhut jolokia (Capsicum chinense) which is native to northeast India; Bhut jolokia has the highest pungency level in the world.

In the study, many varieties belonging to C. chinense, C. frutescens, C. annuum were studied and comparative analysis carried out for pungency, vitamins and other metabolites. The high level of pungency and vitamins was found to be positively correlated with high antioxidant activities — the higher the pungency of the capsicum variety the higher was its antioxidant property. The results were published in the journal PLOS ONE.

“Pungency and vitamin C show high correlation, and these two along with other metabolites have high antioxidant activity,” says Sarpras M from the School of Life Sciences, JNU and the first author of the paper. “When we tested the extract on in vitro cell-free assays the highly pungent capsicum varieties showed very high potential for free radical scavenging activity compared with low pungent varieties. We compared capsicum varieties with low, moderate and high pungency.”

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