BELL PEPPER

"Green pepper" redirects here. For green peppercorns, see Black pepper.
Red, yellow, and green bell peppers. In some countries these three different-coloured peppers are sold in packs of three and are known as "traffic light peppers".

Bell pepper, also known as sweet pepper or a pepper (in the United Kingdom) and capsicum (in India, Australia and New Zealand), is a cultivar group of the species Capsicum annuum. Cultivars of the plant produce fruits in different colors, including red, yellow, orange and green. Bell peppers are sometimes grouped with less pungent pepper varieties as "sweet peppers". Peppers are native to Mexico, Central America and northern South America. Pepper seeds were later carried to Spain in 1493 and from there spread to other European, African and Asian countries. Today, China is the world's largest pepper producer, followed by Mexico.


Nutritional value

Compared to green peppers, red peppers have more vitamins and nutrients and contain the antioxidant lycopene. The level of carotene, like lycopene, is nine times higher in red peppers. Red peppers have twice the vitamin C content of green peppers.[6] Also, one large red bell pepper contains 209 mg of vitamin C, which is three times the 70 mg of an average orange.