Capsaicin Extraction and Its Study by Gas Chromatography – Mass Spectrometer and Nuclear Magnetic Resonance

Thays Cardoso Valim 1, Álvaro Cunha Neto 1, Danyelle Alves da Cunha 1, Valdemar Lacerda Junior 1
1 UFES, Universidade Federal do Espirito Santo
Av Fernando Ferrari, Goiabeiras, Vitória - ES
[email protected]

INTRODUCTION
As the years pass, the number of researches about peppers has been raising up extensively. The scientific researches reveals that the pepper has antioxidant, antitumoral activity, beyond of being used as an anesthetic.1,2 Therefore, beyond its commercial purpose, the pepper has been shown a large pharmaceutical potential. Most of these benefits come from the capsaicin. Capsaicin is an alkaloid and the majority compound found on the peppers, it is responsible for the pungency.2 Researches about its pharmacological potentials came from 1935, and since then, it was discovered that the capsaicin has anticancer, analgesic, cardioprotective and anticoagulant activities.3,4,5,6 There are several researches about capsaicin extraction, purification and its quantification. Regarding to quantification process, the most used is the high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). However, we already found some reviews about quantification process using nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). Therefore, this project has the aim to extract the capsaicin from the Capsicum frutescens, and do the quantification process using NMR.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Firs of all, it was bought one kilogram of Capsicum frutescens from a farmer, and then it was made a simple extraction with methanol. The solution obtained was submitted to an analysis of Gas Chromatography – Mass Spectrometer (GC-MS), following the method described by Peña-Alvarez et. al. (2009). The result is shown on Figure 1, and we can observe two characteristically peaks of a pepper analysis coming from the majority compounds: capsaicin and dihydrocapsaicin, with retention time 25.6 and 25.8 min, respectively. Analyzing the chromatogram, we also observe other peaks, most of them come from silica. However, there is one peak in 24.9 min which is regarding to a nonivamide, one of the capsaicinoids found on peppers.

CONCLUSION
The GC-MS revealed the presence of our main interest analyte (capsaicin), beyond of also revealed the presence of nonivamide and dihydrocapsaicin. From the results obtained, the next steps will be a purification step, and then, NMR analysis, including a quantitative analysis.

REFERENCES
1 Fuwei, L. et al. Separation and Purification Technology, China, v. 64, p. 304-308, out. 2008.
2 Nascimento, P. L. A. et al. African Journal of Microbiology Research, Pernambuco, Brazil, v. 7, n. 27, p. 3526-3533, maio. 2013.
3 Virus, R. M.; Gebhart, G. F. Life sciences, v. 25, n. 15, p. 1273-1283, 1979.
4 Rollyson, W. D. et al. Journal of Controlled Release, v. 196, p. 96-105, 2014.
5 Lau, J. K. et al. Apoptosis, v. 19, n. 8, p. 1190- 1201, 2014.
6 Hayman, M.; Kam, P. C. A. Current Anaesthesia & Critical Care, v. 19, n. 5, p. 338- 343, 2008.
7 Peña-Alvarez, A.; Ramirez-Maya, E.; Alvarado-Suarez, L.A. J. Chromatogr. A 2009, 1216, 2843-2847.