What are the different types of Capsicum?
What Are The Different Types of Capsicum?
- Types of Capsicum. These fruits are pointed and have thin walls. ...
- Health Benefits of Capsicum. 1) These are packed to the brim with antioxidants and thus, are prevention for various chronic illnesses.
- Conclusion. Capsicums are not just beautiful and attractive but a handful of health and nutrition. ...
What does genus Capsicum mean?
pepper, (genus Capsicum), genus of more than 30 species of flowering plants in the nightshade family (Solanaceae), several of which are extensively cultivated for their edible, often pungent fruits. The genus comprises all the varied forms of fleshy-fruited peppers, including the mild bell peppers
Can you eat ornamental peppers?
– Yes, definitely you can eat ornamental pepper. Ornamental peppers are edible but the main question is whether you like it or not. These colorful peppers are mostly grown for their vibrant color and not for their taste or nutritional values. Ornamental peppers are not a single variety of peppers.
What is Capsicum good for?
Capsicum helps relieve stomach aches, prevents skin-aging, muscle spasms, and aches is beneficial for women undergoing menopause and people with arthritis. In addition to these, Capsicum prevents psoriasis, peptic ulcer, and lowers the risk of cardiovascular diseases due to its analgesic properties.
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What is the common name for capsicum?
Bell pepperCOMMON NAMES: Bell pepper, red pepper, sweet pepper, Cayenne Pepper. MORPHORLOGICAL DESCRIPTION: A subshrub perennial plant that is usually grown as an annual.
What is bell pepper scientific name?
Capsicum annuum GroupBell pepper / Scientific name
What is the real name of red capsicum?
Red capsicum is member of the plants named scientifically as Capsicum annuum like green capsicum, yellow capsicum. Like chilli peppers (jalapenos), red capsicum is originated in South America. Red capsicum is more mature than green, orange or yellow capsicum.
What is the scientific name of the different varieties of capsicum fruits?
Capsicum annuumNameTypePod sizeCayenne (Red)Cayenne13 cm (5 in)CherryPimiento2.5 cm (1 in)Cheongyanglong, hotChilacaPasilla15 cm (5.9 in)38 more rows
Why is it called capsicum?
Why Do We Call It A Capsicum? 'Capsicum' is the name of the genus of the flowering plant and it is derived from the Greek word 'Kapto' meaning bite or swallow. Since bell peppers are actually 'pepper fruits', they can be just eaten like that.
Is capsicum and bell pepper same?
bell pepper, (Capsicum annuum), also called sweet pepper or capsicum, pepper cultivar in the nightshade family (Solanaceae), grown for its thick, mild fruits. Bell peppers are used in salads and in cooked dishes and are high in vitamin A and vitamin C.
Is a capsicum a chilli?
A capsicum is another name for "chili pepper" in many countries, though in the scientific world, the name refers to the genus of flowering plants in the nightshade family Solanaceae. A genus is part of the biological ranking classification of living things and fossils, ranked below "family" and above "species".
Is a capsicum a pepper?
Capsicums are also known as bell peppers in America or just peppers in the UK. In the intermediate stage of ripening, capsicums are yellow or orange and are significantly sweeter than the green version. When fully ripe, capsicums are red and are at their peak when it comes to vitamin and antioxidant content.
What is the name of yellow capsicum?
Leaving a mild fruity flavour on the tastebuds, Yellow capsicums, also known as Yellow bell peppers are bell shaped, medium-sized fruit pods.
Is capsicum a chemical?
Capsicum mainly contains active pungent principles; a chemical group of nonvolatile alkaloid compounds collectively called as capsaicinoids. All the capsaicinoids are acid amides with vanillylamide and C9–C11 branched chain fatty acid (Wesolowska et al., 2011; Huang, Xue, Jiang, & Zhu, 2013).
What is the chemical formula for capsaicin?
C18H27NO3Capsaicin / Formula
What is Capsicum frutescens English?
tabasco pepper, hot pepper, tabasco plant, Capsicum frutescensnoun.
What is a capsicum?
Capsicum is a genus of plants from the nightshade family ( Solanaceae ). Some of these plants are used as spices, vegetables, or drugs. The fruit of Capsicum plants have a variety of names. The names vary depending on place and type.
What peppers have capsaicin?
The only pepper without capsaicin is the bell pepper. Chili peppers are of great importance in Native American medicine. Capsaicin is also used in modern Western medicine to stimulate blood circulation or to relieve pain . Black pepper and Sichuan pepper cause similar burning sensations.
What is the name of the pepper in India?
In Indian English, the word "capsicum" is used exclusively for bell pepper. All other varieties of chili peppers are called chili. In northern India and Pakistan, bell pepper is also commonly called "Shimla Mirch" in the native languages. Shimla incidentally is a popular hill-station in India (and "Mirch" means chili in native languages).
What is paprika used for?
In Hungarian, the word paprika is used for capsicum fruit and dry spice. In Israel capsicum is commonly called pilpel, meaning pepper in Hebrew . You can test how hot a hot pepper can be by using the Scoville scale.
What are the heatless peppers called?
In Australia, New Zealand, India, Singapore and Hong Kong, heatless species are called "capsicums" while hot ones are called "chilli/chillies" (double L). The term "bell peppers" is rarely used, usually in reference to C. annuum and other varieties which look like a "capsicum" or bell but are fairly hot.
Why do plants secrete capsaicin?
The plants developed the secretion of capsaicin to protect the fruit from being eaten by mammals. At the same time, the bright colors attract birds. These birds will spread the seeds. The amount of capsaicin in peppers is highly variable and dependent on genetics.
What kind of peppers are used in chili?
Green, yellow and red peppers. . This same species has other varieties as well, such as the Anaheim chilly often used for stuffing, the dried Ancho chilly used to make chili powder, the mild-to-hot Jalapeño, and the smoked ripe Jalapeño, known as a Chipotle .
Where is Capsicum native to?
Capsicum ustulatum Paxton. Capsicum annuum is a species of the plant genus Capsicum native to southern North America and northern South America. This species is the most common and extensively cultivated of the five domesticated capsicums.
What is the name of the peppers that are hot?
The smaller, hotter varieties are called chiles, chilies, chillies, chile, or chili peppers, or in parts of the US, "peppers". Capsinoid chemicals provide the distinctive tastes in C. annuum variants. In particular, capsaicin creates a burning sensation ("hotness"), which in extreme cases can last for several hours after ingestion.
What color are C. annuum flowers?
The single flowers are an off-white (sometimes purplish) color while the stem is densely branched and up to 60 cm (24 in) tall. The fruit are berries that may be green, yellow, orange or red when ripe. While the species can tolerate most frost-free climates, C. annuum is especially productive in warm and dry climates.
Where are peppers found?
Cultivars descended from the wild American bird pepper are still found in warmer regions of the Americas.
Is C. annuum an annual?
Although the species name annuum means “annual” (from the Latin annus "year"), the plant is not an annual but is frost tender. In the absence of winter frosts it can survive several seasons and grow into a large, shrubby perennial herb. The single flowers are an off-white (sometimes purplish) color while the stem is densely branched and up to 60 cm (24 in) tall. The fruit are berries that may be green, yellow, orange or red when ripe. While the species can tolerate most frost-free climates, C. annuum is especially productive in warm and dry climates.
How many species of capsicum are there?
After a great deal of heated argument and countless amendments within the scientific community, the genus Capsicum is now widely accepted as consisting of 26 wild species and just 5 domesticated species. Pepper lovers, horticultural hobbyists, budding chefs, lovers of flavorful foods and even those who just love the novelty ...
How tall is Capsicum pubescens?
With distinguishing features that include a height of up to eight feet, vibrant purple flowers and unique pods that are typically apple or pear shaped, Capsicum Pubescens is quite easy to tell apart from other species. It is also more likely than not the most difficult to grow.
Why is capsicum important?
Capsicum has been cultivated and consumed for thousands of years. In an incredible number of ethnic dishes around the world, peppers are an essential ingredient for truly authentic regional flavors as well as adding heat to just about any type of food imaginable.
How tall does Baccatum grow?
This species has distinctive coloring on the flowers, and typically grows tall, often reaching heights of about 5 feet.
What is a pepper plant?
What most people today refer to as “peppers” are all part of the plant genus Capsicum. Cross-pollination both in nature and through intentional efforts to create pepper hybrids has resulted in a baffling range of more than 3,000 known varieties of Capsicum, with new varieties continuing to emerge.
Is Capsicum Frutescens a tabasco pepper?
Capsicum Frutescens. The Frutescens species has the distinction of being much less widely cultivated than the others outlined here. However, don’t let that fool you. The tabasco pepper – used to create the wildly popular world famous sauce for more than 160 years – is a member of the Frutescens species.
Is Capsicum annum a domesticated plant?
Capsicum Annuum. Of the five domesticated species of Capsicum, this particular species is the most common as well as the most extensively cultivated. Peppers of this species include a wide range of flavors and intensities from sweet to mild to hot. Many favorites are members of this species, including:
What is a pepper fruit?
The fruit is a berry. Pepper fruits come in a variety of shapes and sizes, ranging from the small and nearly circular ají charapita to the long and thin tabasco pepper and to the large, furrowed fruits of the bell pepper. A sampling of the diversity of the pepper genus ( Capsicum) at a farmers' market. Aji pepper.
Where do peppers come from?
Peppers are native to tropical America and are particularly important in the cuisines of tropical Asia and equatorial America. Traces of pepper fruits have been found in prehistoric remains in Peru and Mexico, and the plants were widely grown in Central and South America by various pre-Columbian civilizations.
What is Thai chili pepper?
Thai chili peppers ( Capsicum annuum ), a cultivar known for its piquant fruits. Daniel Risacher. Read More on This Topic. Solanales: Pepper. Pepper s belong to the South American genus Capsicum. As with the tomato, the garden pepper was domesticated in Mexico...
How many types of peppers are there?
There are five species of domesticated peppers— C. annuum (sweet peppers), C. baccatum …. >peppers, and tomatoes—all herbaceous plants, which are perennial in the tropics and annual in temperate zones. The pepper ( Capsicum) includes the sweet, or bell, pepper (which is green when immature but red or yellow when ripe), and the red, or chili, pepper.
When were black peppers first used?
Originally mistaken for a form of black pepper ( Piper nigrum ), the first pepper seeds were carried to Spain in 1493 and from there spread rapidly throughout Europe and the rest of the world. Thai chili pepper. Thai chili peppers ( Capsicum annuum ), a cultivar known for its piquant fruits. Daniel Risacher.
How long does it take for pepper plants to grow?
They are propagated by seeding directly in the soil or by transplanting seedlings started in greenhouses or hotbeds after 6 to 10 weeks.
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Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. ...
Metabolic syndrome
Researchers in 2018 reviewed studies on the effect of capsaicin on metabolic syndrome. In this condition, a person has several risk factors for cardiovascular disease such as diabetes, unhealthy cholesterol levels, high blood pressure, and obesity.
Pain
A 2020 review evaluated the body of research on the pain-relieving effects of capsaicin in topical or injection form. Topical form means people apply it to the skin. The authors noted:
Cancer
A 2020 study reviewed research on the effects of capsaicin on cancer. A majority of the investigations involved high concentrations of the compound in cell cultures.
Mortality
Research in 2017 examined the association between eating hot red chili peppers and mortality. The authors used data from the National Health and Nutritional Examination Survey of more than 16,000 participants.
Antibiotic-resistant infections
A current global health challenge is the emergence of antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections. In these infections, bacteria mutate in a way that they are no longer susceptible to eradication through antibiotic treatment.
Overview
Species and varieties
Capsicum consists of 20–27 species, five of which are domesticated: C. annuum, C. baccatum, C. chinense, C. frutescens, and C. pubescens. Phylogenetic relationships between species have been investigated using biogeographical, morphological, chemosystematic, hybridization, and genetic data. Fruits of Capsicum can vary tremendously in color, shape, and size both between and w…
Etymology and names
The generic name may come from Latin capsa, meaning 'box', presumably alluding to the pods; or possibly from the Greek word κάπτω kapto, 'to gulp'. The name "pepper" comes from the similarity of piquance (spiciness or "heat") of the flavor to that of black pepper, Piper nigrum, although there is no botanical relationship with it or with Sichuan pepper. The original term, chilli (now chile in
Growing conditions
Ideal growing conditions for peppers include a sunny position with warm, loamy soil, ideally 21 to 29 °C (70 to 84 °F), that is moist but not waterlogged. Extremely moist soils can cause seedlings to "damp-off" and reduce germination.
The plants will tolerate (but do not like) temperatures down to 12 °C (54 °F) and they are sensitive to cold. For flowering, Capsicum is a non-photoperiod-sensitive crop. The flowers can self-pollin…
Capsaicin
The fruit of most species of Capsicum contains capsaicin (methyl-n-vanillyl nonenamide), a lipophilic chemical that can produce a burning sensation (pungency or spiciness) in the mouth of the eater. Most mammals find this unpleasant, whereas birds are unaffected. The secretion of capsaicin protects the fruit from consumption by insects and mammals, while the bright colors attr…
Cuisine
Capsicum fruits can be eaten raw or cooked. Those used in cooking are generally varieties of the C. annuum and C. frutescens species, though a few others are used, as well. They are suitable for stuffing with fillings such as cheese, meat, or rice.
They are also frequently used both chopped and raw in salads, or cooked in sti…
Synonyms and common names
The name given to the Capsicum fruits varies between English-speaking countries.
In Australia, New Zealand and India, heatless varieties are called "capsicums", while hot ones are called "chilli"/"chillies" (double L). Pepperoncini are also known as "sweet capsicum". The term "bell peppers" is never used, although C…
See also
• List of Capsicum cultivars
• List of vegetables
• New Mexico chile
• Pimento
• Scoville scale
Overview
Characteristics
Pollination
Uses
Host plant
See also
Capsicum annuum is a species of the plant genus Capsicum native to southern North America, the Caribbean, and northern South America. This species is the most common and extensively cultivated of the five domesticated capsicums. The species encompasses a wide variety of shapes and sizes of peppers, both mild and hot, such as bell peppers, jalapeños, New Mexico chile, and cayenne pe…
Further reading
Although the species name annuum means 'annual' (from the Latin annus "year"), the plant is not an annual but is frost tender. In the absence of winter frosts it can survive several seasons and grow into a large, shrubby perennial herb. The single flowers are an off-white (sometimes purplish) color while the stem is densely branched and up to 60 cm (24 in) tall. The fruits are peppers that may be green, yellow, orange or red when ripe. While the species can tolerate most frost-free climates, C…
External links
While generally self-pollinating, insect visitation is known to increase the fruit size and speed of ripening, as well as to ensure symmetrical development. Pepper flowers have nectaries at the base of the corolla, which helps to attract pollinators. The anthers do not release pollen except via buzz pollination, such as provided by bumble bees.