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 Pepper is an annual plant. Sweet peppers are used in the cooking and canning industry. Salads and side dishes are made from fresh fruits. Chopped pieces of pepper and whole fruits are salted and pickled. In terms of vitamin C content, it occupies one of the first places among vegetable crops.
Peppers grown in our country can be divided into two groups - vegetable (sweet) and bitter (spicy). Sweet peppers became famous in Europe only after the discovery of America. His homeland is Central and South America (Guatemala, Nicaragua, Mexico, Peru, Bolivia, Brazil), while bitter pepper has long been cultivated in Iran, Iraq, Turkey, Afghanistan, the republics of Central Asia, on the east coast of Africa.
In our area, vegetable peppers are grown mainly in the southern regions (Moldova, Ukraine, Transcaucasia, North Caucasus, Central Asia), but there are varieties that can be successfully cultivated in the central and western regions of the European part, including Belarus. Vegetable (sweet, Bulgarian) pepper is a valuable raw material for the canning industry, and it is also widely used in home cooking. Bitter pepper is used as a herb, especially in oriental dishes.
Pepper sugars are represented by glucose, fructose and sucrose. Fructose and glucose are contained in approximately the same quantities, sucrose is less. Among organic acids, the first place belongs to malic, followed by citric and oxalic. Oxalic acid in pepper a little - about 0.01%. For use in nutrition, pepper is harvested in two periods - at the stage of technical (green color of the pods) and physiological maturity (pods of intense red color). When the pods ripen, the sugar content increases and the amount of starch decreases, but the main changes are observed in the vitamin composition. Vegetable pepper is a valuable vitamin culture.
When the pods ripen, their vitamin value increases significantly. That is why sweet peppers at the stage of physiological maturity are recommended for fortification of canned food and ready-made meals. According to the content of ascorbic acid, it is one of the richest C-vitamin carriers. According to this indicator, it can only be compared with the fruits of black currant and vitamin species of rose hips. Noteworthy is the high content of vitamin B, niacin and folic acid, and vitamin E in pepper.
The color of the pods is mainly due to chlorophyll and carotenoids, and the latter play a leading role precisely from the stage of physiological maturity (during maturation, the concentration of carotenoids in the shell increases). Among the carotenoids, the leading places belong to capsanthin, capsarubin, and β-carotene (which is approximately 7-10 times less than capsanthin). Xanthophyll, zeaxanthin, cryptoxanthin, and some other related compounds have also been found. The coloration of red peppers is mainly due to capsanthin. Pepper is rich in flavonoids that have a capillary-strengthening effect. It should be emphasized that these compounds (later called "vitamin P") were first isolated precisely from the extract of Hungarian red pepper. Pepper flavonoids include quercetin, hesperidin, apiin, luteolin-7-glucoside, vitexin, isovnexin, orientin, etc.
The aroma of the fruit is due to the presence of essential oil, the content of which in the shell is 0.12-0.15%. The specific pungent taste of pepper (both bitter and sweet) is associated with a phenolic compound - capsaicin, which contains vanillamide and decylenic acid.Capsaicin stimulates appetite, enhances the secretion of gastric juice, and stimulates the pancreas. It is also used externally as an irritating and distracting agent, it is a part of a pepper patch, tincture of capsicum, liniment "Capsin", ointment for freezing.
The ash contains compounds of potassium, calcium, magnesium, sodium and a number of other elements, but pepper is inferior to many vegetables - eggplant, cabbage, onions, carrots, tomatoes, radishes, garlic - in the amount of potassium salts. Among the trace elements - iron, manganese, copper, zinc, fluorine, iodine, etc. Pepper is rich in iron (750 μg / 100 g of the edible part of the product) and especially zinc (440 μg / 100 g), and in the amount of the latter it surpasses almost all vegetables, second only to one garlic.
An antibiotic called "capsicidin" was found in the seeds and shell of capsicum. It inhibits the growth of yeast fungi. Pepper leaf extracts are detrimental to many plant viruses.
Bell peppers are used as a vitamin supplement. Due to its ability to stimulate appetite and improve digestion, pepper is also used in case of loss of strength, anemia. It promotes the separation of bile. Pepper should not be used for stomach ulcers, duodenal ulcers, acute and chronic gastritis, enteritis and colitis, acute and chronic hepatitis and cholecystitis (in the acute stage).
Perednev V.P. Fruits and vegetables in human nutrition
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