What nutritional value do purple peppers have? Few people have seen them
I accidentally came across someone online asking whether purple peppers are edible. It happens that during my internship, I followed my teacher at a plantation for more than a year of cultivation, breeding and research on purple peppers, and many people have many misconceptions about the edible value and nutritional value of purple peppers. Today I will briefly introduce purple peppers to everyone here.
The reason purple peppers appear purple is due to the synthesis and accumulation of anthocyanins in the plant. In the seedling stage, the cotyledons, true leaves and stems, as well as in the mature plant stage the stems, leaves, flowers, young fruits and other organs, can all show purple, but after the fruit matures, the fruit shows normal red.
The greatest nutritional value of purple peppers lies in their rich anthocyanin content, which is also where they differ most from ordinary green peppers. Anthocyanin is a powerful antioxidant. It can protect the human body from damage by harmful substances called free radicals. At the same time, anthocyanin can also enhance blood vessel elasticity, improve the circulatory system and increase skin smoothness, inhibit inflammation and allergies, and help prevent cancer. Purple peppers are also very rich in vitamin C, carotene and mineral elements, and have extremely high nutritional value and edible value.
Some people online say that purple peppers are only an ornamental pepper and cannot be eaten. This is a misunderstanding about purple peppers. Purple peppers are not only edible, but compared with ordinary green peppers, purple peppers have the advantages of high vitamin C content in the fruit, unique flavor and taste, and the leaves of purple peppers contain more amino acids, minerals and vitamins than the leaves of ordinary green peppers. Their edible value is also very high, and in terms of taste and quality they are also clearly superior to ordinary green peppers.
Some people say that purple peppers taste mild and have no spiciness. This is only a one-sided statement. Purple peppers, like conventional peppers, are divided into spicy and non-spicy types. Not all purple peppers are non-spicy. On the contrary, the capsaicin content of some varieties of purple peppers is very high, making them much spicier than ordinary green peppers. As for why some purple peppers are not spicy, I have summarized the reasons. First, it may be because purple and green peppers were artificially crossbred, and the hybrid offspring show the appearance traits of purple peppers, but the capsaicin is reduced; second, under natural conditions, purple peppers and ordinary green peppers exchanged and fused pollen during the flowering period due to the influence of external natural factors, inheriting the external traits of purple peppers, but the capsaicin content was not stably inherited along with it.
Although the nutritional value of purple peppers is far higher than that of ordinary green peppers, due to various reasons, they have not yet been promoted and planted on a large scale. In some places they are only grown in small demonstration areas, or kept on family balconies as ornamentals, so at present it is very difficult to see purple peppers for sale on the market.
Here I hope everyone can move beyond misunderstandings about purple peppers, gain a deeper understanding of purple peppers, accept purple peppers, and taste purple peppers. I believe it will definitely give you an unusual feeling.