Unground Capsicum— This occurs as oblong-conical fruits, often curved (Louisiana Long Pepper), usually laterally compressed, from 10 to 25 mm in length and from 4 to 8 mm in diameter (African Chillies), or up to 15 cm in length and 2.5 cm in diameter (Louisiana Long Pepper), or up to 5.5 cm in length and up to 13 mm in diameter (Louisiana Sport Pepper), or up to 4 cm in length and up to 9 mm in diameter (Tabasco Pepper). The fruit is 2-3 locular, the dissepiments being united at the base to a conical, central placenta. The pericarp is thin and membranous, its outer surface dark reddish brown to dusky yellowish orange, glabrous, shrivelled, its inner surface striate with 2 to 3 distinct longitudinal ridges representing the parietal placentae; the seeds are light brown to weak yellowish orange, suborbicular or irregular, flattened, from 2 to 4 mm in diameter, with a thickened edge and a prominent, pointed micropyle. The calyx is gamosepalous, inferior, 5-toothed, and sometimes attached to a long, straight peduncle. Capsicum has a characteristic odor, and is sternutatory.

Histology— The epicarp of Capsicum consists of mostly quadrangular or rectangular cells up to 80 µm in length and up to 20 µm deep, arranged in regular rows, with thickened and cutinized outer and radial walls, the surface of the cuticle finely striated, the radial walls somewhat wavy (African Chillies), or of polygonal, quadrangular, triangular, or irregular cells up to 76 µm in length and up to 30.5 µm deep (Tabasco Pepper), or up to 125 µm in length and up to 38 µm deep (Louisiana Long Pepper), or up to 76 µm in length and up to 38 µm deep (Louisiana Sport Pepper), with cuticularized outer and radial walls, the latter usually prominently beaded. The mesocarp consists of thin-walled parenchyma (African Chillies), or an outer hypodermis of tangentially elongated collenchymatous cells (Louisiana Long Pepper and Tabasco Pepper), or of from 1 to 3 rows of hypodermal cells with cuticularized walls (Louisiana Sport Pepper), a broad middle zone of thin-walled parenchyma containing yellow to red chromoplasts, oil droplets, and elaioplasts, occasionally microcrystals, and traversed by vascular bundles, and an inner zone consisting of a layer of giant cells. The endocarp consists of a layer of elongated cells, some of them very thin-walled and containing chromoplasts and others in large oval areas with thickened, beaded, lignified walls. Epidermal cells of the seed are irregular in outline and up to 342 µm in length, have very sinuous, contorted, lignified walls, the cells from the edge of the seed being much thicker walled than those from the flat surface of the seed. The embryo is curved and embedded in the endosperm, the latter consisting of small-celled parenchyma containing fixed oil droplets and aleurone grains.

Powdered Capsicum— This is a dark orange or dark reddish orange to strong yellowish brown powder. It shows numerous fragments of thin-walled parenchyma containing oil globules and orange, red, or yellow chromoplasts; fragments of epicarp with either striated, rectangular cells arranged in parallel series (African Chillies), or with polygonal, triangular, or irregular cells, with or without beaded walls. The endocarp contains stone cells with slightly wavy, lignified walls and broad lumina. Numerous fragments of spermoderm composed of stone cells are present, showing in surface view, deeply sinuate, greatly thickened and lignified vertical walls containing numerous pore canals. Fragments of small-celled parenchyma of the endosperm containing fixed oil and aleurone grains, the latter up to 5.5 µm in diameter, are also present as well as occasional fibrovascular elements and calyx tissues.

(Official January 1, 2007)