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Capsicum (red pepper, Mexican pepper). Legends, myths, symbolism, description, cultivation, methods of application

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Content

1. Photos, basic scientific information, legends, myths, symbolism
2. Basic scientific information, legends, myths, symbolism
3. Botanical description, reference data, useful information, illustrations
4. Recipes for use in traditional medicine and cosmetology
5. Tips for growing, harvesting and storing

Chili pepper (red pepper, Mexican pepper), Capsicum annuum. Photos of the plant, basic scientific information, legends, myths, symbolism

Basic scientific information, legends, myths, symbolism

Sort by: Pepper (Capsicum)

Family: Solanaceae (Solanaceae)

Origin: Central and South America

Area: Capsicum grows in tropical and subtropical regions of Central and South America, as well as in parts of Africa, Asia and Oceania.

Chemical composition: Capsanthoids and carotenoids, such as carotene, cryptoxanthin, lutein and zeaxanthin, are the main biologically active substances of capsicum. Peppers also contain vitamins C and E, flavonoids and other beneficial substances.

Economic value: Capsicum is widely used in cooking to add flavor and flavor to various dishes. It can be eaten fresh or used in sauces, marinades and soups. In addition, capsicum has a number of health benefits, such as lowering blood cholesterol levels, improving digestion, and maintaining healthy skin. In some regions of the world, capsicum is also used in traditional medicine to treat various diseases.

Legends, myths, symbolism: In Mexican culture, capsicum is traditionally considered a symbol of life and prosperity, and its pungent taste is associated with courage and spiritual strength. In some Indian religious traditions, chilli also has its place, for example, it can be used as a sacrificial item for the gods.

Chili pepper (red pepper, Mexican pepper), Capsicum annuum. Description, illustrations of the plant

Capsicum annuum L. Botanical description, history of origin, nutritional value, cultivation, use in cooking, medicine, industry

An annual herbaceous plant. The stem is erect, woody, branched at the base, 60-70 cm high. The leaves are petiolate, oval, pointed, from green to purple. The flowers are large, white, yellow or purple, located in the axils of the leaves. The fruit is a low-juicy multi-seeded hollow conical berry. Seeds flat, whitish. Blooms in June-August.

The plant is native to Central and South America. It was cultivated as far back as 2000 BC. In the XNUMXth century, pepper came to Spain, from where, under the name "Spanish pepper", it was brought to the territory of other European countries. At first it was used as an ornamental, medicinal and spicy plant, and with the advent of sweet varieties bred by Bulgarian and Hungarian breeders, it became especially popular as a food.

In Eastern Europe, pepper as a spicy and medicinal plant began to be cultivated from the XNUMXth century, and as a food plant - from the middle of the XNUMXth century. In culture, there are three varieties: sweet pepper with large fruits with thick, fleshy walls, semi-sharp pepper - with large long fruits, with a wavy surface, and hot pepper - multiple, thin-walled, cone-shaped. Sweet tomato-shaped peppers (gogoshary) are very popular with rounded and rounded-flattened fruits.

Pepper is a heat-, light- and moisture-loving plant. The optimum temperature for growth and development is 22-27 °C. Higher temperatures and overheating of the soil contribute to the disease and wilting of the plant. Pepper prefers light, highly fertile, moderately moist soils. It is usually placed after onions, early white and cauliflower, legumes and green crops. Before planting, deep loosening of the soil (10-12 cm) is carried out.

In mid-latitude conditions, pepper seedlings are grown, which are usually planted in the first or second decades of May. Plant deep, to the first pair of true leaves. Seedlings of sweet pepper are placed at a distance of 25-30 cm from each other, sharp - at a distance of 18-20 cm. Further care consists in loosening and hilling plants, watering, feeding, removing weeds, and fighting diseases. When fruiting, watering is especially necessary, and during fruiting, top dressing with fertilizers. Peppers are harvested in the technical (green) stage of ripeness every six to eight days. Sweet can be stored in the refrigerator for up to two weeks. Bitter is dried, strung on threads and hung in the shade for ripening.

Sweet pepper is a healthy, nutritious and tasty vegetable containing a significant amount of vitamins C, B1, B2, P, PP, carotene, minerals (especially potassium, sodium and phosphorus), sugars, and proteins. By the amount of vitamin C, pepper among vegetable crops ranks first. To this it should be added that as they mature, the amount of vitamin C doubles, rutin - one and a half times, and carotene - ten times. In addition, the amount of sugars, proteins, acids increases, and fiber decreases. There is another remarkable property of pepper fruits: vitamin C is not destroyed during their storage.

The main component of bitter pepper is the alkaloid capsaicin, which gives it a burning sensation. The fatty and essential oils contained in it cause a specific aroma and moderate sharpness; Together with vitamins, they stimulate appetite, improve digestion, tone up the pancreas.

Sweet pepper juice has long been known as an antiscorbutic. Due to the high content of vitamins P and C, pepper has a beneficial effect on blood vessels - it reduces their fragility and permeability. Pepper helps to remove cholesterol from the body and thus prevents the development of sclerosis.

Hot peppers are also used for medicinal purposes. The tincture of its fruits has a local irritating and distracting effect. It is used externally for sciatica, myositis, etc. Pepper plasters are made on the basis of the tincture. Studies have found that the effect of preparations made from the fruits of bitter pepper is based on the content of a large amount of the alkaloid capsaicin in it, which enhances the secretion of gastric juice and increases its acidity.

Sweet pepper is a valuable dietary food product with a pleasant, slightly spicy taste. Unripe fruits of light green, dark green and yellow color are used for stuffing with rice and meat, vegetables, mushrooms. Bright red fruits are added to improve the taste in various salads, snacks, marinades and pickles. Seasonings for meat and vegetable dishes are prepared from them, they are baked, fried in oil, marinated.

Bitter varieties of pepper are used as a spice. Hot pepper is used to improve the taste of meat, vegetable, rice dishes, sometimes in combination with other spices, such as garlic, coriander, basil, bay leaf, etc. Red ground pepper, especially paprika, made exclusively from red pepper shells, gives dishes not only pungency, but also color.

Authors: Kretsu L.G., Domashenko L.G., Sokolov M.D.

Capsicum annuum L. Capsicum annuum L. Botanical description, distribution, chemical composition, features of use

Solanaceae family - Solanaceae.

Semi-shrub up to 60 cm high, with branched stems and elliptical leaves.

The flowers are large, white or grayish with purple spots, solitary, located in the forks of the branches and in the axils of the leaves.

The fruit is a berry with a low-juicy pericarp. The shape of the fruit in different varieties is different - from spherical to ovoid trunk. Color of fruits from yellow-red to black-olive.

Homeland - Central America, in the tropical regions of which it is found in the wild.

The fruits of sweet pepper are rich in carbohydrates, proteins, fats.

Among vegetable crops, they are distinguished by the content of ascorbic acid and carotene, vitamins of group B.

In fruits, up to 50% of dry matter is carbohydrates, represented mainly by soluble sugars (fructose, sucrose, glucose), there are also polysaccharides s (starch, pectin and fiber), organic acids, nitrogenous substances, half of which is protein. The shell of the fruit is rich in salts of potassium, sodium, iron, calcium, aluminum, phosphorus; there are also sulfur, chlorine, silicon.

By the content of carotenoids, pepper is close to carrots. There are also flavonoids (glucosides of quercetin, luteolin) with P-vitamin activity. The specific burning taste of pepper depends on the presence of capsaicin.

In sharp varieties it contains up to 1%, in sweet varieties - 0,01%. A drop of water containing only 0,000005 of capsaicin can cause a burning sensation. From other substances found saponin, capsacidin and essential oil.

Bitter varieties of pepper are used as a seasoning, spice for many dishes, as well as in canning and alcoholic beverage production.

Pepper extract or capsaicin increase the secretion of gastric juice and increase its acidity, and the fatty oil obtained from the seeds has a similar effect on the secretory function of the stomach. Capsaicin exhibits a pronounced bacteriostatic effect even at a dilution of 110.

Sweet pepper is a valuable food product. It is most useful when fresh. It has a pleasant slightly spicy taste and a high content of vitamins, which is preserved during cooking.

In pepper fruits, the activity of enzymes that oxidize ascorbic acid is relatively low, so it is not destroyed during canning. When salting, canning, the safety of vitamins in pepper over a long period of storage remains in the range of 50-80%.

Therefore, the importance of pepper as a food product increases in winter and early spring, when the lack of vitamins is especially felt. The fruits of sweet pepper in an unripe form are used in cooking and the canning industry for salting and pickling. The fruits of bitter pepper are used in their mature state in the alcoholic beverage industry, cooking and medicine.

In the form of a powder, bitter pepper is part of pepper mixtures - substitutes for black and allspice.

In cooking, sweet and hot peppers are also used as spices in dry ground form. Raw or boiled peppers are served with meat and various cheeses, used in salads mixed with other vegetables. In dry ground form, it is used for cooking soups, almost all types of meat and meat products.

It should be noted that pepper should not be poured into boiling oil or fat, as it loses color, blackens and bitters.

Due to the high content of rutin, along with ascorbic acid, pepper consumption helps to strengthen blood vessels and has a pronounced anti-sclerotic effect. These vitamins normalize the permeability and elasticity of the walls of blood vessels, promote the excretion of cholesterol, prevent the development of sclerosis, hypertension.

As a result, pepper consumption is recommended even for some infectious diseases accompanied by damage to the vascular wall (scarlet fever, hemorrhagic fevers). The daily requirement for ascorbic acid and rutin can be satisfied by consuming 40-50 g of pepper fruits.

Sweet pepper is highly valued in diet food. It is recommended as a multivitamin product for hypo- and avitaminosis, loss of strength, anemia, and also as a means of increasing appetite and stimulating digestion.

Sweet pepper juice has long been known as an antiscorbutic agent, it helps to strengthen nails and hair, improve the functioning of the sebaceous glands and lacrimal ducts. In medicine, mainly hot varieties of pepper with large red fruits are used. In the form of a tincture, ointment or compound pepper liniment, it is used externally for rheumatism, radiculitis, myositis, neuralgia, as an irritant and distraction.

Pepper powder and pepper plaster are used similarly to mustard plasters. An ointment containing hot pepper is quite effective for frostbite.

Pepper tincture is also used orally as a means to increase appetite and improve digestion, as well as in acute gastrointestinal disorders (due to bactericidal action).

It should be noted that when ingesting pepper preparations in excessive doses, an acute gastrointestinal upset may occur, and if applied externally, burns can occur. Various pepper dishes and its preparations are contraindicated in gastric and duodenal ulcers, diseases of the liver, intestines, and kidneys.

Tincture of pepper fruits is used to enhance hair growth, in particular with their nested loss. To do this, it is rubbed into the skin of the scalp.

Authors: Dudchenko L.G., Kozyakov A.S., Krivenko V.V.

Capsicum (Red Pepper), Capsicum. Classification, synonyms, botanical description, nutritional value, cultivation

Names: Ukrainian pepper; Az. kyrmyz istpot; arm. phpeh pachocavor; cargo, tsitsaka; fr. piment, carive, corail des jardins, courats, poivre de Calicut, poivre de Guinee, P. dInde, P. de Bresil, P. long, Poivon; English pepper, capsicum; German Spanischer Pfeffer, Paprika, Schatenpfeffer, Beisberre; Goal. spaanische peper; Swede, peppar; it. peperone; Spanish pimento, ajiport. pimento, pimentao; Polish pieprz turecki, papryka.

Pepper, widely distributed in the south, plays a significant role in the nutrition of the population of our southern regions and republics as a seasoning for all kinds of dishes.

Pepper goes for borscht, salads, pickling, marinating and as an independent dish.

Hot peppers are ground into a powder and called paprika, served like salt in every southern canteen.

This vegetable is also important for our canning industry, which makes the so-called stuffed peppers from it.

The genus Capsicum has three species: C. appiite L. (annual). C. frutescens L. and C. pubescens R. I P. (perennial). V. L. Gazenbush, who worked with the world collection of peppers, divided this genus into five species: C. mexicanum Haz., (cultivars common in Europe belong to it), C. colotnbianum Haz., C. reruvianum Haz., C. bolivianum Ngg. and C. pubescens R. et Pav. At the same time, it has been established that annual peppers can be perennial, if the harmful effects of low temperatures are excluded.

C. frutescens L. is a perennial plant originating from Brazil.

It is distributed almost throughout South America (Peru, Brazil, Venezuela), Mexico, the Antilles and the southern states of the USA, it is replete with wild forms that are important only in the homeland of this species, where they are used by the local population. In Peru, as well as in Colombia and Guatemala, another type of pepper is also common - C. rubescens R. I R.

For us, the most interesting species is C. appium L., which includes almost all cultivated varieties of pepper. It occupies a much larger range in America than other species. Inhabiting the same points of the earth as C. pubescens and C. frutescens, due to its undemanding heat, it goes further north, but is most common in Mexico, Guiana (Cayenne), the Antilles and Brazil.

The main cultivated species of pepper - C. tnexlcanum Haz. - a plant with a more or less straight stem, 25-125 cm high.

Root taproot, branched.

The stems are either bare or pubescent, often woody at the base and have a rounded, and tetrahedral section upwards. The grip (dimension) of the bush is different (from 25 to 100 cm). Leaves solitary or collected in rosettes, ovate or lanceolate, with a pointed upper part, green or spotted olive-black, glabrous or pubescent, long-petiolate.

Calyx cup-shaped, green; sepals short, subulate. The flowers are wheel-shaped, 0,9-3,2 cm in diameter. Corolla cleft-petaled, with 5-6, rarely 7 petals, white or purple. The tube is short, the limb is large, pointed-ovoid. Anthers are cone-shaped, with a slight bifurcation at the base, grayish-violet; upper ovary. The fruit is a false berry, drying out when ripe, 2-3-celled, multi-seeded.

The fruits vary greatly in size and shape (by weight from 0,25 to 190 g), initially green or olive-black, when ripe they become red, orange, yellow, brown or olive-black. The seeds are flat, pale yellow, pungent in taste, varying in diameter from 0,2 to 0,55 cm.

View C. mexicanum Haz. divided into six subspecies:

1. East Asian - subsp. orientali-asiaticutn Haz.

2. European - Asian - subsp. eurasiaticum Haz. - the most common in Europe.

Forms of this subspecies are also known in Afghanistan, Iran, Asia Minor, Bulgaria, Hungary, Spain, etc. This subspecies includes early and mid-ripening varieties, with low and medium height bushes. The fruits are various in shape, with a wide and narrow base, pyramidal, conical, prism-shaped, elongated-conical, spherical, etc.

The flesh of the fruit is relatively thin, sharp and slightly sharp. This subspecies includes varieties: Astrakhansky, Bulgarian 470, Bulgarian 046, Bulgarian 035, White Nikitsky, Crimean White, Kalinkovsky, Shipka, Elephant Trunk, Ukrainian Gorky.

3. Indian - subsp. indicum Haz., including mid- and late-ripening forms, with tall and short bushes, with thin stems, long branches.

The leaves are long, narrow, small, green or olive-black.

The fruits are long, narrow, smooth or cross-folded at the stalk, red or yellow.

The varieties belong to this subspecies: Red Long Cayenne and Yellow Long Cayenne.

4. North American - subsp. boreali-americanum Haz., which contains relatively late-ripening forms with large bushes, large leaves and large fruits. This subspecies includes the so-called sweet varieties: American 413, Oshkosh 903, Rotunda 449, Rotunda A-10, Rotunda 63.

5. Central Mexican - subsp. centrali-mexicanutn Haz.

6. Central American - subsp. centrali-atnericanum Haz.

Pepper is a heat-loving plant, in culture it is distributed mainly in the south, however, with the help of seedlings, it works well even in the northern non-chernozem zone (especially sharp and peninsular varieties).

Salpichroa rhomboides Miers

Perennial aerial root prone plant growing in Argentina.

The leaves are small, the flowers are drooping, tubular, white, reminiscent of lily of the valley flowers (which is why this plant is sometimes called pampas lily of the valley). The fruits are small, oblong-oval, 2-3 cm long and about 1 cm wide, white at full maturity, serve as a delicacy for children and are used like jam.

Author: Ipatiev A.N.

Chili pepper (red pepper, Mexican pepper), Capsicum annuum. Recipes for use in traditional medicine and cosmetology

Ethnoscience:

• For colds: tincture of capsicum helps to improve the condition of a cold. To prepare the tincture, you need to cut 1-2 pods of pepper and pour boiling water, leave for 20-30 minutes, strain and drink 1/3 cup three times a day.
• For joint pain: Capsicum ointment can help relieve joint pain. To prepare the ointment, you need to mix the powder from dried pepper pods with oil and rub into sore spots.
• For stomach problems: Capsicum can help with indigestion, heartburn, belching and other stomach problems. For this, it is recommended to add it to food as a seasoning.
• To strengthen immunity: Capsicum contains a lot of vitamin C, which helps to strengthen the immune system and protect the body from diseases. It is recommended to add it to food as a seasoning or use it as a tincture.
• To improve digestion: Capsicum can help improve digestion and speed up metabolism. It is recommended to add it to food as a seasoning or use it as a tincture.
• To reduce the pain of hemorrhoids: Capsicum contains capsaicin, which can help reduce the pain of hemorrhoids. It is recommended to apply ointment from capsicum on the affected areas.

Cosmetology:

• Face mask for wrinkles and age spots: mix 1 tablespoon of ground capsicum, 1 egg white and 1 teaspoon of honey. Apply the resulting mixture on your face and leave for 10-15 minutes. Rinse off the mask with warm water and apply a moisturizer.
• Hair strengthener: mix 1 tablespoon of ground capsicum with 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Apply the resulting mixture to the hair roots and massage for 5-10 minutes. Leave the product on the hair for 30 minutes, then rinse with shampoo.
• Body Scrub: mix 1 tablespoon of ground capsicum, 2 tablespoons of sea salt and 3 tablespoons of jojoba oil. Apply the resulting mixture on the skin of the body and massage in circular motions for 5-10 minutes. Rinse off the scrub with warm water and apply a moisturizing lotion.

Attention! Before use, consult with a specialist!

Chili pepper (red pepper, Mexican pepper), Capsicum annuum. Tips for growing, harvesting and storing

Capsicum, also known as paprika or Mexican pepper, is one of the most popular types of pepper due to its juicy and flavorful capsicum.

Tips for growing, harvesting and storing capsicum:

Cultivation:

• Capsicum prefers fertile, well-drained soils with a neutral pH.
• It also needs bright sunlight, so choose a location where it will get a full day of sun.
• Capsicum seeds should be sown inside in pots 8-10 weeks before the last frost.
• Plant the seedlings outdoors when the danger of frost has passed and the soil has warmed up to 18-20 °C.
• Plants should be planted at a distance of about 30-45 cm from each other and between rows.
• When planting seedlings, capsicum should be planted to a depth equal to the depth of the seedling pot.
• A distance of about 30-45 cm should be left between plants.
• Capsicum peppers need regular watering, especially during hot weather.
• Do not let the soil dry out, but avoid waterlogging it.
• Feed plants with fertilizer at the beginning and middle of the growing season.
• Remember that capsicum can grow up to 60-90 cm in height, so be sure to tie it to a support or stakes.
• Remove all flowers and fruits that did not have time to ripen by the onset of cold weather so that the plant does not waste energy on them.

Workpiece:

• Pepper pods can be harvested when they are fully ripe and bright in color.
• Harvested pods can be used for canning, freezing, or cooking.

Storage:

• Fresh capsicum pods can be stored in the refrigerator for several days.
• Capsicum can be used fresh in salads, sauces and other dishes.
• It can also be preserved. To do this, you need to prepare sterilized jars, fill them with salt water, add capsicum and tighten the lid.
• Canned pods keep in a cool and dry place for several months.
• Frozen pods can be stored in the freezer for up to 6 months.

Capsicum is an excellent source of vitamin C, vitamin A and other beneficial substances. It can be used in many dishes and can be easily stored for later use.

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