Variability of Capsaicinoid and Capsaicinoid Analog Concentrations in Ají (Capsicum baccatum L.) Peppers, Poster Board #041

Variability in the concentrations of capsaicinoids and capsaicinoid analogs which contribute to flavor and nutritional quality of Capsicum baccatum peppers is not well understood.  Using reversed-phase liquid chromatography with ultraviolet absorbance and electrospray mass spectroscopic detection, we evaluated capsaicinoids and their analogs in mature green fruit from 224 non-cultivated and cultivated accessions of C. baccatum var. baccatum, C. baccatum var. pendulum, C. baccatum var. umbilicatum and C. baccatum var. praetermissum acquired from the USDA/ARS Capsicum genebank in Griffin, GA.  Concentrations of total capsaicinoids and associated pungency scores among accessions ranged from 3 to 12,522 microg/g dry weight and 46 to 194,278 Scoville heat units (SHU), respectively, with median values of 3,165 microg/g dry weight and 47,667 SHU.  Likewise, concentrations of individual capsaicinoids ranged from essentially none (< 2) to 8,323, 7,409, 996, 301, 293, 163, 126, 115, and 30 microg/g dry weight for capsaicin, dihydrocapsaicin, nordihyrocapsaicin, coeluting homocapsaicins, N-vanillyl decanoate, homodihydrocapsaicin II, N-vanillyl octanoate, homodihydrocapsaicin I and norcapsaicin, respectively, with associated median values of 1,918, 818, 151, 49, 35, 21, 7, 6, and 5 microg/g dry weight.  Capsaicin was generally the most abundant capsaicinoid amongst accessions followed by dihyrocapsaicin and nordihydrocapsaicin.  The total concentration of essentially non-pungent capsaicinoid analogs, capsiate, dihydrocapsiate, capsiconiate and dihydrocapsiconiate, ranged between non-detectable and 1,315 microg/g dry weight with a median value of 160 microg/g dry weight.  Variability in the concentrations of capsaicinoids, and the capsinoid and capsiconinoid capsaicinoid analogs was sufficiently large that genetic manipulation may enable the development of improved C. baccatum cultivars with novel flavor and nutritional attributes and the introgression of these desirable attributes into pepper (C. annuum) breeding lines.