Chile peppers are one of the most important vegetable and spice crops in the world. They contain capsaicinoids that are responsible for the characteristic burning (pungency) sensation. Currently, there are 22 known naturally occurring capsaicinoids that can cause the heat sensation when consumed. Each produces a different heat sensation effect in the mouth. A need exists for a standard and new terminology to describe the complex heat sensation one feels when eating a chile pepper. A comprehensive set of descriptors to describe the sensory characteristics of chile pepper heat was developed. It was validated with trained panelists tasting samples representing the five domesticated species and 14 pod-types within these species. Five key attributes that define and reference a lexicon for describing the heat sensation of chile peppers were determined to describe the heat sensation in any product, and importantly, can be used in the food industry worldwide.

Cannabidiol (CBD) is a hydrophobic non-psychoactive compound with therapeutic characteristics. Animal and human studies have shown its poor oral bioavailability in vivo, and the impact of consuming lipid-soluble CBD with and without food on gut bioaccessibility has not been explored. The purpose of this research was to study the bioaccessibility of CBD after a three-phase upper digestion experiment with and without food, and to test lipase activity with different substrate concentrations. Our results showed that lipase enzyme activity and fatty acid absorption increased in the presence of bile salts, which may also contribute to an increase in CBD bioaccessibility. The food matrix used was a mixture of olive oil and baby food. Overall, the fed-state digestion revealed significantly higher micellarization efficiency for CBD (14.15 ± 0.6% for 10 mg and 22.67 ± 2.1% for 100 mg CBD ingested) than the fasted state digestion of CBD (0.65 ± 0.7% for 10 mg and 0.14 ± 0.1% for 100 mg CBD ingested). The increase in bioaccessibility of CBD with food could be explained by the fact that micelle formation from hydrolyzed lipids aid in bioaccessibility of hydrophobic molecules. In conclusion, the bioaccessibility of CBD depends on the food matrix and the presence of lipase and bile salts.

Onions are one of the most important vegetable crops worldwide. However, their production faces many challenges. Genetic improvement is one mechanism to address those challenges. In this review, we discuss recent research pertaining to the diseases Fusarium basal rot and Iris yellow spot, the insect pest onion thrips, onion pungency, and dormancy. Recent research for screening onion bulbs for Fusarium basal rot resistance has resulted in improved screening techniques and germplasm exhibiting less disease when inoculated with the disease-causing pathogen. Improved screening methods have resulted in germplasm exhibiting fewer and less severe Iris yellow spot symptoms when onion thrips and conducive environmental conditions are present. Onion germplasm with less and differing compositions of epicuticular wax on their leaves have shown a nonpreference for thrips feeding and have the potential for developing thrips tolerant cultivars. Conventional breeding efforts and genetic manipulation of the genes producing alliinase and lachrymatory factor synthase has resulted in low pungency, tearless onions. In long-day onions, an annual generation time has been achieved by artificially breaking bulb dormancy early while ensuring proper vernalization has been completed. Genetic improvement of these and many other onion traits will continue and result in better production in the future.

This study investigated the diversity of carotenoids and phenolics in germplasm from three Capsicum (chile pepper) species, Capsicum annuum , Capsicum baccatum , and Capsicum chinense . Lutein, a yellow-pigmented carotenoid, and phenolics, a group of secondary metabolites, are reported to have health-promoting properties. The germplasm studied matured to a yellow color. The hypothesis was that all yellow fruits would contain either the carotenoid lutein, a yellow pigment, or a large amount of phenolics, a group of secondary metabolites that may be yellow among other colors. Thirty-one Capsicum accessions were grown in the field over a period of two seasons. On a dry weight (DW) basis, lutein ranged from 0.14 to 94.2 μg·g ⁻¹ , and total phenolics ranged from 5.79 to 15.01 mg·g ⁻¹ . No lutein was detected in one accession and β-carotene, another health-promoting compound, was lacking in four accessions. Accessions were grouped into four groups according to a principal component analysis plot. Results from this study indicate that in only nine accessions, lutein represented at least 50% of the total carotenoid amounts in each accession. These accessions are desirable not only as a source of dietary lutein, a natural yellow pigment, but also as genetic material that can be used to breed for higher lutein Capsicum . Therefore, yellow color is not a good indicator of lutein content and phytochemical analysis is required to determine the content of health-promoting compounds.

"NuMex LotaLutein, a Lutein-rich Serrano Pepper" published on 09 Nov 2020 by American Society for Horticultural Science.

Lutescens, or lutescent, plant mutants produce leaves that are abnormally light yellow-green compared with normal plants, and are observed in multiple species of Capsicum as well as other genera such as Zea , Oryza , and Oenothera . Previous investigations into the lutescent phenotype in Capsicum have focused on genetic and transcriptomic analyses, and comparatively little is known about the phytochemical constituents of the lutescent leaf phenotype. Previous research in similar lutescent mutants in Capsicum and Oryza species has attributed their pale yellow-green leaf color and poor vigor to deficient chloroplast development. A total of 25 accessions of Capsicum lutescens mutants were phenotyped and analyzed based on a multivariate approach, using ‘Jupiter’ bell pepper ( Capsicum annuum ) with normal green leaves as a contextual benchmark. Photosynthetic pigments from mutant leaves were extracted and analyzed using high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC); reflectance of the leaf material was measured with a chromameter using the L*a*b* color space. The chlorophyll a (Chl a)/b (Chl b) ratio was greater in leaves of lutescens mutants than in ‘Jupiter’. Multivariate statistical analyses revealed all lutescent mutant accessions could be distinguished from the ‘Jupiter’ contextual benchmark by variables indicating poor chloroplast development and increased photooxidative stress in lutescent mutant accessions. The lutescent leaf phenotype was not found to be caused by elevated xanthophyll or decreased chlorophyll concentrations. Furthermore, multivariate analysis revealed the lutescent mutant phenotype to be variable, with a wide range of phenotypes clustered into four major groups.