capsicum, annual pepper; folk name — red pepper, astrakhan pepper, zhgun.
Solanaceae family – Solanaceae.
For therapeutic purposes, dry fruits of burning varieties are used.
The plant comes from Mexico and Guatemala.
It is cultivated as a vegetable plant mainly in the southern regions of Ukraine. The main blanks are produced in the Kherson, Crimean, Nikolaev, Odessa regions.
Capsicum is an annual herbaceous plant. The stem is branched, knotty, green, 30-75 cm high. The leaves are alternate, petiolate, ovate, pointed at the end, with a wedge-shaped base, entire. The flowers are large, on long pedicels, drooping, sitting one at a time in the forks of the stems and axils of the leaves; calyx bell-shaped, five-toothed; corolla wheel-shaped, five-parted to the middle, whitish. The fruit is a dry, leathery, thin-walled, bright red, elongated cone-shaped berry. Blossoms in June-August, fruits ripen in July-October.
Several varieties of red pepper have been bred in the culture, differing in color, hotness and shape of the fruit, however, only hot varieties are used for medical purposes.
The fruits are harvested as they ripen, mainly in July – August. Dried in the sun or in fruit and vegetable dryers. For precautions when working with raw materials, see page 34. According to GOST 14260-69, raw materials consist of fruits 5 to 12 cm long, 2 to 4 cm wide at the base, cone-shaped, slightly flattened, often slightly curved, with a cup, passing into the fruit. The wall of the fruit is thin, brittle, smooth and shiny on the outside. The fruit is hollow inside, single-celled in the upper part, at the base is divided into two cavities by a placenta with numerous, flat, kidney-shaped seeds with a diameter of 3 to 5 mm. The color of the fruit is dark red or orange-red, the seeds are yellowish, the calyx is brownish-green. The smell is weak, peculiar, the taste is strongly burning. Moisture content should be no more than 14%, total ash content no more than 8%.
In raw materials it is allowed: browned fruits – no more than 2%, organic impurities (seeds, leaves, stems, flowers, buds, calyxes, stalks) – no more than 3, crushed parts of pepper passing through a sieve with a hole diameter of 5 mm – no more 5%.
Capsicum fruits are packed in bales weighing no more than 50 kg or bags weighing no more than 20 kg.
Raw materials are stored in dry, clean, well-ventilated, insulated warehouses on racks (pallets) installed at a distance of at least 15 cm from the floor. Storage period 3 years.
The fruits of red hot peppers contain the alkaloid capsaicin, carotenoids, a large amount of vitamin C, vitamin Bt, citrine, essential and fatty oils.
The tincture of the fruit, which has a sharp taste, is used orally in small doses as bitterness to stimulate appetite and improve digestion; externally in the form of rubbing, as a distraction and irritant for rheumatism, sciatica, aches; pepper ointment – for frostbite. Capsicum extract is part of the pepper patch, used as an anesthetic, for gout, arthritis, myositis, lumbago, as well as a distraction for catarrh of the respiratory tract.
Fruits (pods) are widely used in cooking and the alcoholic beverage industry.