ABSTRACT
Dried guajillo peppers were first extracte with four different solvents: ethanol, acetone, ethyl acetate and hexane with the aim of obtaining oleoresins which were futher fractionated into red and paprika extracts. Results showed that as the polarity of the solvent increased the amount of pigment extracted also increased. Acetone had good affinity for pungent (capsaicin) compounds. Utilization of these solvents alone did not produce red and paprika oleoresins that meet commercial specifications. Fractionation of acetone extracted oleoresins with ethanol: water (90:10) yielded a precipitate and a solution. The precipitate and solution produced red and paprika extracts that meet pungency and color specifications. It was possible to obtain red and paprika oleoresins from mild guajillo peppers