Yellow and red varieties of Capsicum chinense sp. peppers fruits were dried in a drying oven or in a fluidized bed apparatus, fragmented and extd. with EtOH. The exts. were analyzed by gas chromatog. coupled to mass spectrometry. The anal confirmed the presence of capsaicinoids in the exts. The yield of capsaicin from the yellow variety was 26.9-33.7 mg/g and from the red variety 5.0-16.4 mg/g of dry matter.