Chili-shaped device could reveal just how hot that pepper is

Date:
October 21, 2020
Source:
American Chemical Society
Summary:
Some people love spicy food -- the hotter, the better. Others go
out of their way to avoid the palate-singeing burn of capsaicin,
the compound that gives chili peppers their kick. Now, researchers
have developed a portable device (whimsically shaped like a chili
pepper) that can reveal how much capsaicin a pepper contains,
before biting into it.



FULL STORY ==========================================================================
Some people love spicy food -- the hotter, the better. Others go out of
their way to avoid the palate-singeing burn of capsaicin, the compound
that gives chili peppers their kick. Now, researchers have developed a
portable device (whimsically shaped like a chili pepper) that can reveal
how much capsaicin a pepper contains, before biting into it. They report
their results in ACS Applied Nano Materials.


========================================================================== Chili peppers are a popular food ingredient around the world. In
addition to imparting a spicy flavor, the capsaicin in chili peppers has several health benefits, including anti-oxidative, anti-carcinogenic
and anti-inflammatory activities. Therefore, the demand for capsaicin
as a food additive and pharmaceutical agent is growing. Warakorn Limbut
and colleagues wanted to develop a simple, accurate and cheap method to quantify the capsaicin content of chili peppers and food samples. Other
methods that have been developed for this purpose are complicated, time-consuming or require expensive, bulky instrumentation.

The researchers made a portable device shaped like a small chili pepper
that could be connected to a smartphone to display the results of
the analysis. The paper-based electrochemical sensor within the device consisted of graphene nanoplatelets doped with nitrogen atoms to improve
their electrical conductivity. When the team added a drop of diluted
capsaicin to the sensor, the compound underwent oxidation and reduction reactions, producing an electrical current that the device detected. After optimizing the sensor, the researchers used it to determine capsaicin concentrations in six dried chili samples. They added the chilies to
an ethanol-containing solution, shook it up and then introduced a drop
of the sample. The device accurately measured capsaicin concentrations
from 7.5-90 mM in the six samples, and could detect down to 0.37mM in
the diluted samples.


========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by American_Chemical_Society. Note:
Content may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Asamee Soleh, Kasrin Saisahas, Kiattisak Promsuwan, Panote
Thavarungkul,
Proespichaya Kanatharana, Warakorn Limbut. N-Doped Graphene
Nanoplatelets for Direct Capsaicin Detection in Chili
Pepper Samples. ACS Applied Nano Materials, 2020; DOI:
10.1021/acsanm.0c02079 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/10/201021130139.htm

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