Up-to-date strategies and future trends towards the extraction and purification of Capsaicin: A comprehensive review

Background: According to the current need of manufacturing healthier products, food companies are seeking specific biomolecules that may offer additional added value (i.e., biological activities) to the new food formulations. Capsaicin, as the pungent ingredient of chili peppers, has become so far one of the target biomolecules explored since the 1950s. There is evidence demonstrating that capsaicin exhibits important biological properties in human health including inhibits acid secretion, stimulates alkali and mucus secretion and particularly gastric mucosal blood flow contributing to the prevention and healing of gastric ulcers, thermoregulation, among many other reported bioactivities.Scope and approach: However, one of the main bottlenecks deals with the proper protocol of extraction and purification of this compound since most of the conventional methods based on solvent extraction do not provide efficient yield, along with diminished bioactivity of the compounds. Therefore, this review comprehensively elucidates the current strategies proposed by researchers towards the sustainable extraction and purification of capsaicin from its natural source, and comparison over traditional extraction methods. Particular emphasis has been focused on the innovative extraction techniques and the relevant insights over the last five years.Key findings and conclusion: A detailed discussion is provided on the advantages and drawbacks of the novel techniques, key interactions with target molecules and their effect on the bioactivity of capsaicin. To finalize, according to the findings of this review, the future trends, perspectives, and research gaps are also given.