ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Pulverizing processes affect the chemical quality and thermal
property of black, white, and green pepper (Piper nigrum L.)
Hong Liu
1
•
Jie Zheng
2
•
Pengzhan Liu
3
•
Fankui Zeng
4
Revised: 11 March 2018 / Accepted: 15 March 2018 / Published online: 24 March 2018
Ó Association of Food Scientists & Technologists (India) 2018
Abstract In this study, the effects of different pulverizing
methods on the chemical attributes and thermal properties
of black, white and green pepper were evaluated. Cryo-
genic grinding minimally damaged the lipid, moisture,
crude protein, starch, non-volatile ether extract, piperine,
essential oil and the typical pepper essential oil compounds
of the spices. The pulverizing methods and storage sig-
nificantly affected the compositions of the fatty acid in the
peppers, except for palmitic acid and lignoceric acid. The
amino acid contents and the thermo-gravimetric analysis
curve were hardly influenced by the grinding techniques.
The use of cryogenic grinding to prepare pepper ensured
the highest quality of pepper products. Regardless of
grinding technique, the values of moisture, piperine,
unsaturated fatty acids, essential oil, monoterpenes, and the
absolute concentrations of typical pepper essential oil
constituents (except caryophyllene oxide) decreased,
whereas the amino acid, lipid, protein, starch, and non-
volatile ether extract content as well as the thermal
properties were insignificantly changed after storage at
4 °C for 6 months.
Keywords Pulverizing processes Á Essential oil
composition Á Amino acid Á Fatty acid composition Á
Thermo-gravimetric analysis
Abbreviations
BPCM Black pepper ground by cryogenic grinding
BPHM Black pepper ground by hammer milling
WPCM White pepper ground by cryogenic grinding
WPHM White pepper ground by hammer milling
GPCM Green pepper ground by cryogenic grinding
GPHM Green pepper ground by hammer milling
Introduction
Black, white, and green peppers are derived from the fruits of
Piper nigrum L., which belongs to the Piperaceae family. The
main constituents of pepper are volatile oils and piperine,
which contribute to the antioxidant, antimutagenic, antitumor,
antibacterial, antifungal, analgesic, and anti-inflammatory
activities, and offers immense pharmacological benefits (Butt
et al. 2013; Zarai et al. 2013; Tasleem et al. 2014;Nikolic
´
et al.
2015; Zou et al. 2015; Luz et al. 2016;Tangetal.2017;
Chandran et al. 2017;Wangetal.2017). The effective sub-
stances and most chemical components of pepper are heat-
sensitive substances. Different pulverizing processes have
damaged these effective substances at varying degrees
because of the mechanical forces and temperature applied
during the grinding processes. Cryogenic grinding is widely
used to obtain the best quality of spice powders (Ghodki and
Goswami 2017). The cryogenic ground spice also dispensed
more uniformly in spice formulations, resulting in a
& Fankui Zeng
zengfk@licp.cas.cn
Hong Liu
liuhong201602@licp.cas.cn
1
CAS Key Laboratory of Chemistry of Northwestern Plant
Resources and Key Laboratory for Natural Medicine of
Gansu Province, Lanzhou Institute of Chemical Physics,
Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou 730000, China
2
Department of Food Science and Engineering, Jinan
University, Guangzhou 510632, China
3
School of Food Science and Engineering, South China
University of Technology, Guangzhou 510640, China
4
Research and Development Center for Eco-Material and Eco-
Chemistry, Lanzhou Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese
Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou 730000, China
123
J Food Sci Technol (June 2018) 55(6):2130–2142
https://doi.org/10.1007/s13197-018-3128-8
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