General information

Chile peppers are used worldwide as a vegetable, spice, medicine, colorant, and chemical deterrent. They are consumed daily by approximately a quarter of the world’s population. There are five domesticated taxa and ca. 37–40 wild taxa in the chile pepper (Capsicum L.) genus.

Substantial Capsicum genetic resources are conserved ex situ in international, national, and subnational genebanks, universities, botanic gardens, seed conservation organizations, and other institutions worldwide, with over 50,000 accessions in total. Several collections stand out in terms of numbers of accessions, species-level diversity, and/or diversity in terms of countries of origin of samples. 

Existing gaps in collections have been identified at species/taxa, genetic, ecogeographic, varietal, trait, and other levels. The Capsicum community engaged in this strategy identified a series of ways in which further acquisition may proceed, toward the larger goal of greater representation of Capsicum diversity within ex situ collections globally.

A framework for the efficient and effective conservation of genetic resources of Capsicum crops has been published in the global strategy for the conservation and use of Capsicum genetic resources in 2022.