Capsicum
Capsicum is a genus of angiosperm plants, native to tropical and subtropical regions of America and belonging to the Solanaceae family. It comprises forty accepted species, of the almost 200 described, herbaceous or shrubby, generally annual, although cultivated species (practically worldwide) have become perennial under favorable conditions.
Several common names refer to the fruits, immature, ripe or dried, of a few species of the genus, according to their shape, color, flavor, uses or origin.
Typical varieties used in gastronomy include:
- Moron pepper
- Ajis, chilies, pebbles or peppers
- Pimiento de Padrón
- Pill pepper
- Pimiento choricero
- Yellow pepper
- Ñora
Description
They are shrubby, annual or perennial plants that can reach 4 m in height, although most do not reach 2 m. They have branched stems that are glabrous or sparsely pubescent. The leaves, 4-12 cm long, are solitary or opposite, petiolate and with entire or sinuate simple blades. The actinomorphic and hermaphroditic flowers, or the inflorescences, axillary and without peduncles, are born in the nodes of the leaves with the stem. They are erect or pendulous. They normally have 5 sepals in a persistent bell-shaped and toothed calyx, occasionally acrescent in the fruit, and usually 5 (and from 4 to many in cultivars) petals of white, yellow, blue, more or less intense purple, mottled with green or frankly. bicolor. The stamens, welded to the corolla, have yellow or purple anthers, ovoid in shape and longitudinally dehiscent. Its ovary is superior, bi or tri-carpellate even more, with numerous ovules, and the style is fine with a small, heady stigma. The fruit, erect or pendulous, is a hollow fleshy berry, always green, more or less dark, when immature and which turns bright yellow-orange-red - and even purple - when ripe; however, some wild species from Brazil do not change color when ripe, and remain green. Curiously, or perhaps because of this, these species have 26 chromosomes instead of the usual 24 for domesticated species. They have generally incomplete internal partitions (converging towards the axis at the base of the fruit) into which the seeds are inserted, especially in the axial zone, thickened, of convergence. These fruits can be up to about 15 cm long, and are very diverse in shape, from globular to narrowly conical. The seeds, which can be kept for about 3 years under favorable conditions, are yellowish and even blackish; They have a somewhat spiral discoidal shape, with a very flattened profile, with very fine crenulated concentric seats and measure a few mm in diameter. The embryo is shaped like a coiled tube.
Fruits
Chili, chili or pepper is the fruit of plants of the genus Capsicum, which includes around 20-27 species, of which 5 are domesticated, in addition to the varieties of each one. The most cultivated species is Capsicum annuum, generally known as bell pepper, bell pepper or bell pepper. Curiously, some varieties lack the substance that gives many of them a characteristic spiciness.
Habitat and distribution
They develop in all types of terrain with a preference for humid areas, forests and undergrowth of gallery forests. The genus grows from sea level to 2400 m s. no. m.
The genus is native to tropical and subtropical areas of Central and South America, but with the cultivation of edible species it has spread throughout practically the entire world, and its consumption in various forms is habitual and traditional in many countries.
History
The genus Capsicum originated about 18,000 years ago, probably in southern Peru or Bolivia. Various paleobotanists, scientists who study plants that lived in the past, agree on this.
Around 10,000 B.C. C. the first humans arrived in the central Andes. It is believed that they consumed wild chili.
In Peru, the oldest archaeological remains that prove its presence were found in the Guitarrero cave, in the province of Yungay (Áncash). These date back to about 8,000 years before our era. But they are not the only Pachamachay (Junín).
8. 000 a.m. C. The chili pepper is domesticated. It is one of the first domesticated plants in South America.
There is archaeological evidence in Mexico that the genus Capsicum was cultivated more than 6,000 years ago and that it is one of the first crops in the Americas to self-pollinate. Said cultivation would have occurred simultaneously in different places in South America and Central America.
It was Christopher Columbus who brought the pepper and its seeds to Spain on his second voyage in 1493. From there its cultivation spread throughout the world, beginning in Europe, and then (in the times when Spain controlled trade with Asia) to the Philippines and from there to India, China, Korea and Japan, where they were incorporated into local cuisines.
An alternative version for the expansion of the pepper is that the Portuguese obtained it from Spain, and cultivated it in Goa (India), which was a colony of this country. From there it spread through Central Asia and Turkey to Hungary, where it became the national spice in the form of paprika.
In 1995, archaeobotanist Hakon Hjelmqvist published an article in Svensk Botanisk Tidskrift stating that there was evidence of the presence of chili peppers in Europe before Columbus. According to Hjelmqvist, in an excavation in San Botulfo in Lund (Sweden) found a Capsicum frutescens fossil in a stratum, supposedly from the XIIIth century. Hjelmqvist believes it came from Asia. The author states that Capsicum was described by Theophrastus (370-286 BC) in his De historia plantarum . Another hypothesis would be that it was brought to northern Europe by the Vikings, who could have traveled to America before Columbus, more precisely in the year 985 in the voyages of Leif Eriksson and his successors. Also, around the I a. C., the Roman poet Martial mentions a piperve crudum (book XI, epigram 18, verse 9), describing it as long and with seeds, a description that seems to fit, but could also fit pepper. long (Piper longum), which was known in the Roman Empire.
Cultivated species
Note: The term «variety» is not used here in its botanical sense (vărĭĕtās, ātis), but in its sense of «cultivation variety », that is, cultivars.
Of the accepted species, only four have been cultivated: C. annuum, C. baccatum, C. chinense, and C. pubescens.
Cultivated species differ from wild ones due to the long period of time, sometimes more than 6,000 years, of careful selection by man. The frequent hybridization between the cultivated species gave rise to multiple highly differentiated varieties that are usually fertile, and their descendants can hybridize again with other species.
The varieties with the largest and sweetest fruits were obtained at the beginning of the XX century, from the human selection of varieties already cultivated.
Growing
For cultivation, an average room temperature of 20 °C is necessary, without too many sudden changes and with a level of humidity that is not too high. It requires a lot of light, especially during the first period of growth after germination. The ideal soil is one that has good drainage, with the presence of sand and organic matter. These requirements mean that they are preferably grown in greenhouses, where the management of conditions is more controllable. Sweet varieties are grown mainly in such greenhouses.
Some varieties have been genetically modified, achieving greater resistance to pests (for example, intervening on antifungal genes such as the J1 gene of Capsicum annuum, which codes for a defensin); or also improving and accelerating the processes of new hybridization, or, through infection with Agrobacterium tumefaciens - which is an optimal vehicle for genetic engineering operations, transferring foreign genes that encode resistance to insects, fungi, certain types of viruses or drought.
Uses
America
The fruits are widely used, since time immemorial, in their region of origin as food, both fresh and dried, under various forms of preparation (raw, cooked, fried, pulverized when dry, etc.).
Europe
In Europe, in addition to its traditional culinary use similar to that of the Americas, the powdered form, paprika (which can be sweet or spicy depending on the variety), is processed at the oleoresin level for industrial uses in the coloration of food, cosmetics and pharmaceutical products. For such purposes, its raw material is not only produced on the European continent, but also imported from other countries, mainly Peru.
Other countries
The leaves, which are slightly bitter but less spicy than the fruit, are used as sprouts in Filipino cuisine, where they are called dahon ng sili (literally 'chili leaves'). They are used in chicken soup called tinola.
In Korean cuisine, the leaves can be used to make kimchi.
In Japanese cuisine, the leaves are prepared as sprouts, and are also cooked tsukudani style to preserve them.
Chemical composition
Capsaicin, (E)-N-(4-hydroxy-3-methoxybenzyl)-8-methyl-6-nonenamide, is the pungent irritant that gives the characteristic flavor of Capsicum. It only exists in the genus - but not in all species/cultivars, and is a plant defense to protect itself from being eaten by mammals, but birds are not affected and thus are susceptible to dispersing the seeds.
Its amount varies significantly between varieties (0.5-1%), and is measured in Scoville units (SHU).
It is mainly concentrated in glands of the interior interlocular septa of placental tissue that partially divide the hollow of the fruit and that carry the seeds and are produced only in the epidermal cells of said septa in pungent fruits. The formation of these glands occurs as a result of the accumulation of capsaicinoids and their formation is controlled by a single gene, Pun1, a gene absent in non-spicy species and cultivars, but in which the recessive Pun12.
Medicinal uses
Capsaicin, at low doses, stimulates appetite and the secretion of gastric juices, likewise increasing gastric and intestinal motility. Externally it is rubefacient and revulsive, with an analgesic effect. Indicated for anorexia, hyposecretory dyspepsia, meteorism. External use: low back pain, pharyngitis, alopecia areata, osteoarticular inflammation, post-herpetic neuralgia and others.
Contraindicated with gastritis, gastroduodenal ulcers. Do not apply on altered skin areas. In topical application, it is very irritating and can cause contact dermatitis. Internally it can be irritating to the mucous membranes. Continued use of food can produce fibrosis of the intestinal submucosa. In topical use, it should be used with extreme caution, due to the possibility of side effects: irritation of the skin and mucous membranes, becoming a blister. Avoid contact with mucous membranes after application. Internally, in high doses it can cause vomiting, diarrhea, gastritis and inflammation of the urinary tract. In excessive doses it can produce hypothermia and symptoms similar to those of anaphylactic shock.
It is also used to manufacture analgesic ointments from industrial waste from overripe fruits.
Other components
Apart from capsaicin, it contains other pungent compounds of a phenolic nature: dihydrocapsaicin, norhydrocapsaicin, homocapsaicin.
Also:
- Carotenoids: capsantine, capsorubine.
- Flavonoids: suitable, lutein.
- Others: Copper, Vitamin B1, Vitamin B2, Vitamin C.
Taxonomy
The genus was described by Carlos Linnaeus and published in Species Plantarum 1: 188–189. 1753. The type species is: Capsicum annuum L.
- Etymology
The name derives from the Latin word capsŭla, ae = 'box', 'capsule', 'little chest', through the Greek word kapsakes, with the same sense, alluding to the fruit that is an almost empty wrapper. Actually the fruit is a berry and not a capsule in the botanical sense of the term.
- Cytology
Within the genus, two groups can be distinguished. The first, with a number of chromosomes of 2n=24, and the other with 2n=26. Of the 40 accepted species, the number of chromosomes of 34/35, that is, practically all, of them is known.
- They belong to the first group: C. annuum, C. chinense, C. frutescens, C. glabriusculum, C. chacoense, C. galapagoensis, C. baccatum, C. pendulum, C. praetermissumm, C. tovari, C. eximium, (C. cardenasii), C. tomentosum hook, C. pubescenium. All these species belong to the Capsicum domesticated by man. They have in common: more or less erect flowers, light coloured seeds, red ripe fruits and generally acres.
- Within the second group they enter: C. buforum, C. campylopodium, C. comutum, C. dusenii, C. friburgense, C. hunzikerianum, C. lanceolatum, C. mirabile, C. pereirae, C. recurvatum, C. rhomboideum, C. schottianum, C. villosum. This sequent group gathers wild species, essentially from the Southeast Atlantic of Brazil and none has been domesticated. Typical characteristics of this group are: flowers frankly pendulums, dark-black seeds, mature fruits green or green-yellow and even orange or brown, but very rarely frankly red, and relatively not acres or even insipid.
Accepted species
3 infraspecific taxa are also accepted:
- Capsicum annuum var. glabriusculum (Dunal) Heiser " Pickersgill "
- Capsicum baccatum var. pendulum (Willd.) Eshbaugh
- Capsicum baccatum var. praetermissum Hunz.