Medicinal Importance of Capsaicin from Capsicum Peppers

Abstract

Capsicum annum and Capsicum frutescens are two commonest species of Capsicum peppers. The Capsicum peppers though commonly used as food additives have several medicinal values that can be exploited. The molecules are usually synthesized for clinical uses. Capsicum peppers are not exceptions to some of these properties. They are potent plants with numerous and divergent usefulness. Various methods for the isolation of the pungent agent, capsaicin, has been recorded using single species of both dried red (ripe) fruits and fresh green peppers in each experiment as the source of the active principle. The IR analysis provides a simple and cheap method of the idea of the structure of the compound. However, it is not enough to use this method alone to elucidate structure of compounds so other instrumentation techniques should be employed for the structure of the compound to be fully elucidated.