The Effect of Postharvest Ripening Duration on Spice Pepper Powder Pigment and Sugar Content

The most important trait of ground red pepper is the pigment content. Pigment synthesis starts on the plant during ripening, then, after harvest, and continuing throughout the after-ripening too. During this period, more stable red pigments are formed. The aim of this research was to optimize postharvest ripening duration, to reach the highest ASTA (total pigment content) in the powders. We took consecutive weekly samples for 6 weeks during the postharvest ripening duration from five Hungarian spice pepper cultivars ('Bolero', 'Delibab', 'Palotas', 'Slager' and 'Szegedi80'), which were grown in unheated plastic tunnels. We examined pericarp ASTA at two different harvest dates. In case of a cultivar the highest value was observed after 4 weeks. Two cultivars reached the maximum after five weeks, and another two reached it after six weeks. A quadratic regression (R-2=0.91) based on the average ASTA change was generated. The curve reached its maximum on the 4-5th week following a 50% rise from the initial ASTA value. The average ASTA value after 4 week was 307 which translated to an ASTA value of 227 ASTA in the powder. By increasing the ripening time, the total and reducing sugar content continuously decreased, while the compound sugar levels first decreased, and then, increased. The total and reducing sugar content change was well characterized using a linear regression, while the compound sugar content change was characterized by a cubic curve.