COMPARATIVE-STUDY OF THE EFFECT OF PAPRIKA PROCESSING ON THE CAROTENOIDS IN PEPPERS (CAPSICUM-ANNUUM) OF THE BOLA AND AGRIDULCE VARIETIES

Reversed-phase HPLC has been applied to monitor changes in individual carotenoids during the industrial processing of paprika from two peppe r varieties, Bola and Agridulce. The ripe fruit, dry fruit, and paprik a from the Agridulce variety always show higher carotenoid content tha n those from the bola variety. The different stabilities associated wi th each carotenoid in the industrial processing of paprika are mainly due to intrinsic factors of the variety rather than to processing fact ors. Whereas in the Agridulce variety the drying and milling stages pr opitiate a global carotenoid degradation, in the Bola variety caroteno id biosynthesis is detected during the drying step. This biosynthesis is associated with an incomplete maturation of fruit, in such a way th at in the Bola variety the drying step induces the synthesis of red pi gments from their yellow precursors already present in the fruit. This synthesis is not de novo but a transformation. Irrespective of the va riety, red pigments always show greater stability than yellow pigments . The agridulce variety is more suitable for paprika production since, as well as giving rise to a final product with a greater carotenoid p igment concentration and, therefore, with a more intense color, the fi nal product also has a higher provitamin A content.