EXTRACTION OF OLEORESIN FROM SWEET PEPPER (Capsicum annuum L.)

Oleoresin from sweet pepper (Capsicum annuum L.), which contains mainly carotenoids, capsaicinoid sand some vitamins, has been currently used in the food industry. and is obtained with the following procedure: a) scalding, b) chopping, c) drying, d) milling, and e) solvent extraction (hexane, acetone, ethyl acetate). Extracted pigments are analyzed using reverse phase HPLC and the results are compared with the oleoresin obtained from comercial paprika imported by TECNAS®. The yield achieved in the laboratory is 3-6%. The results show that scalding and drying are important: the scalding allows to reach an humidity of 13.56% in 320 min (without scalding the humidity reached is 21.01%) and the drying allows extraction with solvents.