ANTIOXIDANT AND ANTI-INFLAMMATORY CAPACITIES OF PEPPER TISSUES

The objective of this study was to investigate the antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activities of five pepper varieties tissues. Green Bell peppers had the highest total antioxidant contents; while Red Chilli variety had the lowest antioxidant activities (ABTS was 3.89 mu mol TE/g fw, DPPH was 2.82 mu mol TE/g fw and FRAP was 16.95 mu mol TE/g fw). The methanolic extracts of different peppers showed strong but different anti-inflammatory activity values (8.22 mu g/ml- 9.52 mu g). Yellow Bell, Red and Green Chilli had the highest anti-inflammatory activity followed by Green and Red Bell extracts, respectively. The results suggest that these varieties of pepper could contribute as sources of important antioxidant and anti-inflammatory related to the oxidative stress and inflammation prevention.