Evaluation of pungency of chillie using the Scoville Index and the comparison of the sensory evaluation method and the spectrophotometric method in determining the pungency level

Abstract

Chillie is well known as a spice for its colour and pungency, especially in Asian and African countries. Capsaicin is identified as the major compound responsible for the pungency in chillie. Different chillie varieties have different Capsaicin levels and, thus, determination of the Capsaicin content of chillie facilitates the grading of different varieties according to the level of pungency. The objectives of the present study were to grade different varieties of chlille according to the pungency using the Scoville Index and to develop a novel spectrophotometric method for determination of Capsaicin content. The Scoville test was based on the Sensory evaluation method and in order to obtain a high accuracy, a panel of assessors was selected and trained. Five chillie varieties namely Sannam best, Sannam medium best, Cashmere, Mil and Sannam long were selected for the study. Ethanol was used as the solvent for the extraction of Capsaicin. Sannam Best, Sannam Medium Best, Mil, Sannam long and Cashmere varieties showed 60000, 20000, 24000, 25000 and 18000 Scoville Heat Unit (SHU) values, respectively. These varieties can be categorized as hot, moderate and mild considering the pungency and SHU. The samples used for the Sensory evaluation were further tested using the UV-VIS spectrophotometer" to confirm the Capsaicin content. The results obtained from the spectrophotometric analysis were highly correlated (r = 0.86) with the results of the sensory evaluation method. It can be concluded that both sensory and UV-VIS spectrophotometric methods can be used to determine the Scoville Index and to grade chillie varieties according to the pungency.