Breeding peppers for industrial uses: Progress and prospects

Pepper is a crucial vegetable as well as spice crop, fruits of which contain numerous bioactive compounds such as capsaicinoids, capsinoids, carotenoids, and oleoresin. Because of the increased demand for eco-friendly products, increasing attention has been paid toward the bioactive compounds in pepper. Hot pepper fruits have potential applications in the pharmaceutical and cosmeceutical industries. Thus, suitable varieties or F1 hybrids rich in bioactive compounds must be developed, which requires breeders to have knowledge on available genetic resources, gene action, and molecular markers associated with these traits. The large variability in the bioactive compounds in hot pepper germplasm and novel generation sequencing technologies have enabled understanding, precise mapping, and marker-assisted selection through single nucleotide polymorphism markers. The present study reviews the available knowledge on various industrial applications of hot peppers, genetic resources and progress made on marker development, and breeding for industrial uses of hot pepper globally. •Peppers have wide applications in pharmaceutical and cosmeceutical industries.•Genetic resources with high capsacinoids, capsinoids and carotenoids are available.•Several efficient estimation methods of the compounds are available.•Molecular markers and candidate genes information for use in marker assisted selection.