Stage extraction of capsaicinoids and red pigments from fresh red pepper (Capsicum) fruits with ethanol as solvent

- Fresh red peppers were used for stage extraction of capsaicinoids and red pigments.
- Aqueous ethanol was used as extraction solvent.
- The capsaicinoids were removed entirely from fresh red peppers by 40-50% ethanol.
- The red colorants were extracted by 95% ethanol with a yield of 91.7%.
- The yield of red colorants of fresh red peppers was 2.2 times that of dry red peppers.

A method for stage extraction of capsaicinoids and red pigments from fresh red peppers (FRPs) was developed in this work. Firstly, capsaicinoids were extracted from FRPs without any drying process by 40%-50% ethanol. Then red colorants without piquancy were extracted from the residues after removal of capsaicinoids using 95% ethanol as solvent with the conditions of 90 °C of temperature of water bath, 4 mL/g of ratio of solvent to material and 120 min of extraction time. The yield of red pigments were 89.8% of total content of red colorants in FRPs, which is about 2.2 times that of dry red peppers (DRPs) dried from equivalent FRPs. Compared with conventional methods, the new processes were simple, but gave a high yield of red pigments without remain of toxic solvent.