Recovery of bioactive compounds from three varieties of Charapita chili pepper (Capsicum frutescens) by ultrasound-assisted extraction

Pérez-Vásquez R.; Pasquel-Reátegui J.L.; Vélez-Erazo E.M. · Journal of Food Measurement and Characterization (2026) · DOI: 10.1007/s11694-025-03953-9

Resumen

The objective of this study was to mathematically model the ultrasound-assisted extraction (UAE) process of bioactive compounds from three varieties of charapita chili pepper (Capsicum frutescens): red, orange, and yellow. Two steps were proposed: first, a face-centered experimental design (FCD) to study the effect of the variables power (20%-60%), ethanol concentration (25%-75%), and solute: solvent ratio (1:10 − 1:30) on the total extraction yield (TEY), total phenolic content (TPC), and total carotenoid content (TCC). The extraction kinetics were then modeled. The response surface methodology optimization results showed good fits of the TEY, TPC, and TCC quadratic models. Kinetics were subsequently constructed from periods of 0–720 s, and the antioxidant capacity of the extracts was also analyzed using ABTS and DPPH assays. The results of the kinetic study revealed that the Peleg and two-site models described a good correlation with the experimental data (R2 > 98.87%) and that short ultrasound times (60–180 s) are sufficient to achieve a high recovery of bioactive compounds and avoid their possible degradation. The red charapita chili pepper stood out for its high TEY and TCC values, and the yellow variety for its TPC and antioxidant capacity. © The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2026.

Instituciones: Universidad Nacional de San Martín