A simple and efficient high-performance liquid chromatographic method was developed and validated for the separation and determination of capsaicin and its major dihydro- and homoderivatives in spice paprika products in 20 min with fluorescent and 35 min with mass-spectrometric detection. The separation was performed on reversed-phase chromatographic adsorbent of cross-linked endcapping with eluent consisting of 1:1 acetonitrile-water or acetonitrile-0.1% formic acid under isocratic conditions. Excellent separation of all the major and minor capsaicinoids with resolution index between 1.08 and 7.34 was achieved. The detection and quantification limits of capsaicinoids in standard material solutions were between 2 and 10 ng/mL. The lowest detectable amount of capsaicin, with fluorescent detection, was found to be <1 µg/g non-pungent spice paprika powder. The naturally occurring capsaicinoids could be distinguished from the non-capsaicinoids compounds appeared on liquid chromatography-fluorescence profile of extract from drastically processed paprika by applying mass spectroscopic detection. Hungarian spice paprika were evaluated as mild to very hot (capsaicinoid content: 334-1,660 µg/g) and chili products as very or extremely hot products (1,543-2,818 µg/g).
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