Study On Extraction, Purification And Determination Of Capsaicin From Red Chilli

Capsaicin which is a food additive with hot taste is widely applied to food seasoning and to some industries, such as medication, angriculture and so on. Capsaicin is the material of ease pain medicines and is used for abstaining poison. Capsaicin is also the material of the tear bomb. So capsaicin is usually regarded as "soft gold". In China, there are plentiful of capsicums and the capsicums have many different species. So it should have bright future for us to study the extraction of capsaicin from hot red chilli.The article is according to the situation justly. In this paper, Chilli in Henan is used as raw material. The technological parameters of extracting process of capsaicin were excellently designed. The new method of purification of capsaicin has been studied systematically. The analysis methods of capsaicin was studied . The stability of the capsanthin was also studied. The main contents and results of experiments are as followings:1. Chilli in Henan was used as raw material to extract capsaicin by using Soxhlet extractor. Considering extraction effects and economic cost, investigation indicated that ethanol (95%) can be as the best extracting solvent. The optimum parameters separately are that raw material size is 40~60 mesh, ratio of raw material to solvent selects 1:4 g/mL, and extraction time is 4 hours. Extracting content of capsaicin is 1.25%.2. The capsaicin were purified separately by using steam distillation, silica gel column chromatography and vacuum sublimation. The result of experiments is that vacuum sublimation can be the best purification method. The extraction temperature is 110℃.The extractiontime is 8 hours. The sublimation was dissolved in the acetone, then, after recrystallizing it, the white crystal of the capsaicin chemical compound is obtained, it's mp being 64~66 °C. The recovery rate of capsaicin chemical compound is (85±)%. The content of capsaicin is high to 94.8%. 3. The capsaicin content of different capsicum products was analyzed by the three means of ultraviolet spectroscopy, high performance liquid chromatography(HPLC) and nuclear magnetic resonance(NMR). *H-NMR has been determined as the suitable analysis method of capsaicin under the condition of no standard capsaicin.4. The thermostability, photostability, antioxidation stability of the capsanthin was studied. The results showed that the capsanthin should be sealed under no oxygen, stored in a cool and dark place. The pigment has good resistance to heat, acid, alkali and the indoor natural light. However, when exposed to the outdoor sunshine, it fades quickly. The common metals(except copper)have little negative effects on the pigment.