Abstract
This investigation was designed to determine the influence of drying methods on the free amino acids and free sugars in red pepper and to study the browning mechanism of brown-colored red pepper. Three different drying methods were employed: 1) Sun-drying at $25{\sim}28^{\circ}C$ for 15 days, 2) Drying in oven at $60^{\circ}C$ for 49 hours, and 3) Drying in oven at $90^{\circ}C$ for 8 hours. Dried and ground peels were used for the analysis of free amino acids and free sugars. The results were as follows; 1. Sixteen kinds of amino acids i.e. asparagine, methionine, and cystine etc. were identified. Total amino acid content of the sun-dried sample was not different from that of the fresh sample, but the samples dried at $60^{\circ}C$ and $90^{\circ}C$ in the oven were decreased to 24.9% and 67.4% respectively. Of amino acids identified, methionine, lysine and aspartic acid were decreased in all treatments. Especially, methionine ana aspartic acid were decreased rapidly to 71.8% and 73.3% , respectively. 2. Three kinds of free sugars i.e. glucose, fructose and sucrose were identified. The total content of free sugars was significantly decreased in each treatment. Among the reducing sugars, glucose was rapidly decreased; 65.9% for the glucose of sample dried at $90^{\circ}C$ in the oven. 3. At the higher drying temperature, the darker red color was found. Brown-color appeared at $90^{\circ}C-drying$ showed appreciable losses in carotenoid content, but the major color seems to be due to the large increase in browning compounds. 4. It was assumed that increased browning compounds of red pepper were due to the Maillard reaction which is a nonenzymatic browning process.