THE EFFECT OF RED CHILI (CAPSICUM ANNUUM L.) SOAKING IN ASCORBIC ACID SOLUTION ON CHARACTERISTICS OF CHILI POWDER.

Red chili is an easily damaged agricultural product that needs to be processed, one of the processing that can be done is drying the red chili and then made into powder. To reduced the quality degradation during drying process used ascorbic acid which acted as an antioxidant: This study aimed to determine the effect of chili powder and obtaining the best ascorbic acid concentration in retaining the chemical content of chili powder. This study used Completely Randomized Design (CRD) with 5 treatments and 3 replications. Data were analyzed by analysis of variance (ANOVA), followed by Duncan's New Multiple Range Test (DNMRT) at the 5% significance level. The treatment used was the difference in the concentration of ascorbic acid, A (0%), B (2%), C (4%), D (6%), E (8%). The research result showed that the difference in vitamin C concentration, antioxidant activity, capsaicin content, oleoresins content and water activity. And was not significantly affected the color test and moisture content. The research results showed that ascorbic acid concentration of 8% (treatment E) was the best chili powder, with moisture content of 10.31%, vitamin C of 165.73 mg/g, capsaicin content of 4.71%, water activity of 0.336, color test of 89.58 0Hue, antioxidant activity of 42.69%, oleoresins content of 15.29%.