Variabilidade metabólica em pimentas (Capsicum spp.): destaque para capsaicinoides por CLAE/FL/EM/EM.

Abstract

Pepper cultivation in Brazil, is of major importance, for economic and social aspects. In addition, Brazil is considered an important genetic diversity center of Capsicum pepper. However, much of this variability is been lost due to crop substitution or in consequence of rural exodus. With the objective of keeping, characterizing and finding sources of biotic and abiotic resistance, Embrapa has active Capsicum germplasm collections. For instance, in order to have these accessions of the collection available for breeding programs they need to be properly characterized. In this context, this work had the objective of characterizing pepper accessions regarding their physico-chemical characteristics and specialized metabolite content. The parameters evaluated were pH, soluble solids content, total titratable acidity, color, phenolic compound content, carotenoid content, antioxidant potential and capsaicinoid content. For capsaicinoid content evaluation, a method for sample preparation and analysis by CLAE-FL was optimized and validated and compunds confirmed for UHPLC-MS/MS. The data presented here shows large variation among genotypes, demonstrating the potential of this Capsicum collection to be used in breeding programs for the development of cultivars Among the accessions, three that stood out the content of functional compounds by group of compounds were: P119, P302 and P189 with a high content of phenolic compounds between 225.16 and 243.47 mg acid equivalent galic/100 grams; P287, P50 and P25, with higher antioxidant potential between 2.71 and 3.03 mmol equivalent Trolox/100mg; P269, P280 and P179, with a high content of carotenoids between 53.42 and 54.11 equivalent mg ß-caroten/100 grams, and the genotypes P120, P246 and P236 with high levels of capsaicinoids between 6132.00 and 19543.70 mg/100g. capsaicinoid content were identified. Capsaicinoid evaluation using UHPLC-MS/MS allowed for the unequivocal confirmation of the identity of the compunds and permitted the dentification of other capsaicinoids including nonivamide, nordihydrocapsaicin, homocapsaicin and homodihydrocapsaicin in Capsicum spp. extracts.