{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,8]],"date-time":"2026-01-08T18:03:33Z","timestamp":1767895413476,"version":"3.49.0"},"reference-count":48,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"12","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2020,12,21]],"date-time":"2020-12-21T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1608508800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100001871","name":"Funda\u00e7\u00e3o para a Ci\u00eancia e a Tecnologia","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["UIDB\/00690\/2020"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["UIDB\/00690\/2020"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100001871","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Agriculture"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Today, consumers are very concerned regarding food quality, nutritional composition and positive health effects of consumed foods. In this context, the preference and consumption of organic products has been increasing worldwide. In the present work, sweet peppers in two maturation stages (i.e., green and red peppers) from organic and conventional production systems were evaluated in regards to phenolic composition and antioxidant activity. Nine phenolic compounds were identified and quantified by a high-performance liquid chromatography-diode-array detector (HPLC-DAD), namely resveratrol, meta-coumaric acid, ortho-coumaric acid, clorogenic acid, caffeic acid, myricetin, rutin, luteolin-7-O-glucoside and quercitin-3-O-rhamnoside. In contrast to the production system, the maturation stage showed a pronounced significant effect on the phenolic composition of the studied sweet peppers; in general, green peppers possessed higher contents than red ones. Meta-coumaric acid, ortho-coumaric acid and quercitin-3-O-rhamnoside were more abundant in green conventional peppers and chlorogenic acid, caffeic acid and rutin were found in higher levels in red organic peppers. Regarding the antioxidant activity, green conventional peppers showed the highest DPPH, ABTS\u2022+ and total reducing capacities, while red conventional peppers had higher TEAC values. Finally, principal component analysis showed that the phenolic composition together with the antioxidant capacities could be used to differentiate the production system and the maturation stage of sweet peppers. This finding confirmed that both factors influenced the peppers\u2019 phenolic composition and antioxidant capacity, allowing their possible use as maturation\u2013production biomarkers.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/agriculture10120652","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2020,12,21]],"date-time":"2020-12-21T04:12:01Z","timestamp":1608523921000},"page":"652","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":30,"title":["Phenolics and Antioxidant Activity of Green and Red Sweet Peppers from Organic and Conventional Agriculture: A Comparative Study"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"10","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-1174-4959","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Rosa","family":"Guilherme","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Instituto Polit\u00e9cnico de Coimbra, ESAC, Coimbra, Portugal &amp; CERNAS\u2011Centro de Estudos de Recursos Naturais, Ambiente e Sociedade, Bencanta, 3045-601 Coimbra, Portugal"},{"name":"GeoBioTec, Faculdade de Ci\u00eancias e Tecnologia, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, 2825-149 Caparica, Portugal"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-6291-8413","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Alfredo","family":"Aires","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Centre for the Research and Technology for Agro-Environment and Biological Sciences, CITAB, UTAD, Quinta de Prados, 5000-801 Vila Real, Portugal"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-9305-0976","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Nuno","family":"Rodrigues","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Centro de Investiga\u00e7\u00e3o de Montanha (CIMO), ESA, Instituto Polit\u00e9cnico de Bragan\u00e7a, Campus de Santa Apol\u00f3nia, 5300-253 Bragan\u00e7a, Portugal"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-6595-9165","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Ant\u00f3nio M.","family":"Peres","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Centro de Investiga\u00e7\u00e3o de Montanha (CIMO), ESA, Instituto Polit\u00e9cnico de Bragan\u00e7a, Campus de Santa Apol\u00f3nia, 5300-253 Bragan\u00e7a, Portugal"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-2260-0600","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Jos\u00e9 Alberto","family":"Pereira","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Centro de Investiga\u00e7\u00e3o de Montanha (CIMO), ESA, Instituto Polit\u00e9cnico de Bragan\u00e7a, Campus de Santa Apol\u00f3nia, 5300-253 Bragan\u00e7a, Portugal"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2020,12,21]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"301","DOI":"10.1016\/j.foodchem.2011.10.081","article-title":"A taste of sweet pepper: Volatile and non-volatile chemical composition of fresh sweet pepper (Capsicum annuum) in relation to sensory evaluation of taste","volume":"132","author":"Eggink","year":"2012","journal-title":"Food Chem."},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"418","DOI":"10.1016\/j.appet.2018.02.029","article-title":"A meta-analytic study of the factors driving the purchase of organic food","volume":"125","author":"Massey","year":"2018","journal-title":"Appetite"},{"key":"ref_3","unstructured":"Willer, H., and Lernoud, J. 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