Analytical evaluation of carotenoids, apocarotenoids, capsaicinoids, and phenolics to assess the effect of a protective treatment on chili peppers dried at different temperatures.

The most common preservation process for chili peppers is drying, which inevitably causes oxidative degradation of thermolabile molecules. The aim of this research was to evaluate the potential protective effect exerted by an active ingredient based on grape seed oil, on pepper fruits. Grapeseed oil is rich in antioxidant compounds and was applied to pepper’s surface in form of a sol–gel product, before fruit thermal treatment. In this work, chili peppers samples were preventively treated with an active solution, and controls (untreated peppers), were submitted to a drying process performed at two different temperatures: 45 and 65 °C. Analysis of capsaicinoids, carotenoids, apocarotenoids, and phenolic content was performed to evaluate possible differences between the sets of samples. Oxidative stability of oil enriched with chili pepper powder aliquots was also measured to evaluate the antioxidant power of the samples. Obtained data showed that treated samples retained a higher amount of capsaicinoids and carotenoids. Oxidative stability of pepper powder was also higher for treated samples than for controls. Furthermore, the thermal treatment performed at 45 °C caused milder modifications than the 65 °C treatment. The applied pre-drying treatment can be proposed to prevent bioactive compounds loss and to enhance product stability and shelf-life.