Study on Extraction and Purification Process of Capsicum Red Pigment

Capsicum red pigment extracted from the dry pepper is a kind of high-quality natural dye which has anticancer andcosmetic properties. First, Qiu North spicy was selected as the experimental objects by comparising the peel meal rateand relative amount of pigment of Fructus capsici, Qian chilli 2, and Qiu North spicy. Then, before extracting paprikadye, sodium hydroxide was used to eliminate the piquancy. Capsicum red pigment was extracted in Soxhlet extractorwith 95% ethanol. The elution condition of column chromatographic separation was obtained by thin-layerchromatography, and the purity of capsicum red pigment was identified by methods of infrared spectrum(IR). Finally,the color value of capsicum red pigment was determined by spectrophotometer with 460nm. Results showed that theoptimal process- Concentration of peppery removal agent (sodium hydroxide) was 10%, the holding temperature was80????, solid-liquid ratio was 1-20 (g/ml), the extraction time was 120min and the times of extraction were twice. Eluentof silica gel column chromatography separation consisted of petroleum ether and 90% ethanol with the volume ratio of2-1. The color value of capsicum red pigment (E1cm1%460nm) could reach to 125 and 2.88% of yield could be gained.The process was good to extract and purify capsicum red dye whose stability was high at neutral and weak acidsolution.