Status of post harvest technology of chillies

Chillies, which are called as red peppers of capsicums constitute an important commercial crop used as condiment, culinary supplement or as a vegetable. Though India is the largest producer of chilleies in the world, it exports only 5 to 8 per cent of the production. The red colour of chillies, which is mainly due to the carotenoid pigments, plays an important role in exporting. Since the intitial moisture content of the freshly harvested red chillies is very high (300–400% dry basis.) it is difficult to process or store chillies at such high moisture content and it should be processed immediately. In this context, a review on traditional method of sun drying, improved method of sun drying, solar drying, mechanical drying is reported. Similarly a review on chilli seed extraction, packaging and storage is also reported.