DYNAMICS OF THE DEGRADATION OF CHLOROPHYLLS IN CULTIVARS OF PAPRIKA PEPPERS

The aim of the present study is to investigate the behavior, in terms of evolution of chlorophylls in fruits, of seven cultivars selected and bred by IMIDA Horticulture Department: the wild-type red cultivars ‘Costal’, ‘Bola’, ‘Datler’ and ‘Rodacol’ and the stay-green cultivars, with the recessive gene cl (chlorophyll retainer) ‘Negral’, ‘Datler Negro’ and ‘Nedacol’.
The fruit have been classified in 8 ripening stages: stages 1-4 green to mature green, stage 5 breaker and stage 6 to 8 red succulent to red partially dry (over-ripe). In each of the stages we have studied the following parameters: total chlorophyll content, chlorophyll a, chlorophyll b and the chlorophyll a/b ratio.
The results were as follows: the red cultivars degrade the chlorophyll when the process of fruit ripening starts.
Thus, in stage 7 (fully ripe fruits) chlorophyll disappears completely.
In the stay-green cultivars, however, there is no chlorophyll degradation at the beginning of ripening.
A chocolate brown color of the ripe fruit results from lack of chlorophyll degradation and the simultaneous accumulation of red pigments.
In some stay-green cultivars, such as ‘Datler Negro’, the chlorophyll values in over-ripe fruit range from 528.26 mg/kg at the beginning of maturation to 222.68 mg/kg in the over-ripe stage.
There¬fore, the chlorophyll catabolism pathway is not completely inhibited but delayed.

XXVIII International Horticultural Congress on Science and Horticulture for People (IHC2010): III International Symposium on Plant Genetic Resources

E. Sánchez, M.S. Catala, J. Gomariz, F. Navarro, F. Sánchez, J. Costa

Capsicum annuum, paprika, chlorophyll content, chlorophyll retainer (cl), stay-green

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2011.918.63