Paprika

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Paprika

Image:Capsicum1.jpg
Assorted paprika fruits from Mexico

Scientific classification

Kingdom:	Plantae
Division:	Magnoliophyta
Class:	Magnoliopsida
Subclass:	Asteridae
Order:	Solanales
Family:	Solanaceae
Genus:	Capsicum

Species

Capsicum annuum

Paprika is a sweet-to-mildly hot cultivar of the chile pepper (Capsicum annuum, of the family Solanaceae). Paprika peppers are elongated or round fruit, bright red, yellow, or green in colour.

Paprika plants tolerate nearly every climate and are grown all over the world. A fairly warm climate is necessary for a strong aroma.

Hungary is probably the world's leading producer of paprika. In fact, the English word was borrowed directly from Hungarian (its ultimate origin, like that of "pepper," is the Latin "piper"). In Hungarian "paprika" refers both to the pepper and to processed paprika in its different forms (see Hungarian paprika, below). Origin of paprika is South America.

In the United States, California and Texas are the main producers.

Image:Paprika.fruits.three.j.jpg

Paprika is often eaten as a ground powder but sometimes as a fresh vegetable. It is commonly used in Hungarian (started from 1850), Macedonia (started from 1917), Serbia (started from 1919), Middle Eastern (started from 1925), and Central Asian (started from 1905) cuisines. The round type can be stuffed with cottage cheese or salad to make a portable lunch.

Some specialty varieties of paprika are hot but the generally available ground preparation is quite mild.

Hungarian paprika

Paprika is grown in Hungary, mainly in the south of that country, for eating fresh, for drying and pulverizing for use as spice, and for pickling. About 40 km² of paprika fields are cultivated each year with an output of about 60000 tons. In addition a total of about 23 km² are used for forced (greenhouse) growing with an output of about 180000 tons. One disadvantage of greenhouse cultivation is the lower nutritional (especially vitamin C) value of the product.

Paprika is noted for its high vitamin C content (150 to 250 mg/100 g). In fact, vitamin C was first isolated (by Hungarian scientist Albert Szent-Györgyi) from Hungarian paprika. The paprika with pointed tips or cherry shaped minis have especially high vitamin C content and are usually very hot. The carotene (vitamin A source) content of the fruit is 10 mg/100g; in addition, it is high in vitamin B1 and B2.

The spicy, hot species have a capsaicin content over 1000 mg per fruit, while others display 250 to 500 mg.

In 2004, considerable damage was done to the image and goodwill of Hungarian paprika, when some local manufacturers and packaging companies were discovered to have illegally blended it with imported tropical paprika that was contaminated with aflatoxin, a mold-generated toxin.