Extraction and determination of capsaicinoids in fruit of hot pepper Capsicum annuum L. by spectrophotometry and high-performance liquid chromatography

The simple spectrophotometric method of determination of capsaicinoids in fresh fruit of hot pepper and the HPLC method were compared. Capsaicinoids were extracted from hot pepper fruit with the petroleum ether:acetone mixture, and then separated using thin layer chromatography on silica gel and evaluated quantitatively using the HPLC method and spectrophotometrically. The high correlation factor obtained for these methods (0.93) proved that either method can be used for determining the total of capsaicinoids in fresh and powdered hot pepper fruits isolated by the TLC method and that both can be successfully used in laboratories that are not so well equipped.