Pepper Compound Mighty Against Mold

摘要

Dried, ground cayenne peppers have been spicing up cuisine and have been used medicinally for thousands of years. But in just the last decade, ARS microbiologist Anthony De Lucca and colleagues reported evidence that cayenne pepper contains novel antifungal plant compounds within the saponin chemical family. As a result, in 2001 USDA-ARS patented a pepper saponin extract named "CAY-1" that has fungicidal properties. De Lucca is with the Food and Feed Safety Unit at ARS's Southern Regional Research Center (SRRC) in New Orleans, Louisiana. He and colleagues recently published a new study showing that CAY-1 holds promise in laboratory experiments as a fungicide against several grape pathogens. This work was published in 2008 in the American Journal ofEnology and Viticulture.