Tropical and subtropical vegetables (2+1)

Economic importance and uses

• Chilli is mainly used in culinary purpose for adding flavour, colour, and pungency. Dry chilli, powdered or ground into a paste and even green chillies are used for curries, sambars, rasam and other savory dishes to impart pungency, colour and flavour to food items. It is widely used in the manufacture of curry powder, curry paste and all kinds of pickles and preparing sauce, soups, salads etc.
• In food and beverage industries chilli is being used in the form of oleoresin which permits better distribution of colour, flavour in food. Capsaicin, the pungent principle, is used in the preparation of balms, whereas the colour extracts (caratenoids pigments) find use as colour additives in food industry, poultry and prawn feed industry. Raw green as well as fried one are used as such for eating.
• Capsicum is mostly consumed raw in green mature forms unlike in Europe and US where they are consumed in red ripe form in salads, cooked, mixed and stuffed vegetables.