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Capsaicinoids are plant secondary metabolites, capsaicin being the principal responsible for the pungency of chili peppers. It is biosynthesized through two pathways involved in phenylpropanoid and fatty acid metabolism. Plant capsaicin concentration is mainly affected by genetic, environmental and crop management factors. However, its synthesis can be enhanced by the use of elicitors. Capsaicin is employed as food additive and in pharmaceutical applications. Additionally, it has been found that capsaicin can act as a cancer preventive agent and shows wide applications against various types of cancer. This review is an approach in contextualizing the use of controlled stress on the plant to increase the content of capsaicin, highlighting its synthesis and its potential use as anticancer agent.

Plants are fundamental elements of the human diet, either as direct sources of nutrients or indirectly as feed for animals. During the past years, the main goal of agriculture has been to increase yield in order to provide the food that is needed by a growing world population. However, as important as yield, but commonly forgotten in conventional agriculture, is to retain and, if possible, to increase the phytochemical content due to their health implications. By 2025, the global population will exceed 7 billion. In the short term, per capita availability of arable land and irrigation water will decrease from year to year while biotic and abiotic stresses expand. Food security, defined as economic, physical, and social access to a balanced diet and harmless drinking water will be a compromise, with a holistic approach to nutritional and non-nutritional factors needed to achieve success in the eradication of hunger. Science and technology will play a very important role in stimulating and sustaining agriculture leading to long-term increases in productivity without linked ecological harm.

Maize (Zea mays L.) is one of the most important crops in the world. It is the third most important food grain crop in the developing world and is estimated that the demand for maize in developing countries will grow by 50%, from 558 million tons in 1995 to 837 million tons in 2020. Much of this increased demand will be needed by domestic supply for developing countries, which will require intensifying production on existing agricultural land (Ribaut and Ragot, 2007). Drought is one of the prime abiotic stress in crops in the world. Crop yield losses due to drought stress are considerable. Particularly in maize, as an example, drought is the major stress affecting productivity in Africa leading up to 70% or total crop loss (Muoma et al., 2010; Ashraf, 2010). Although a variety of approaches have been used to alleviate the problem of drought, plant breeding, either conventional breeding or genetic engineering, seems to be an efficient and economic means of tailoring crops to enable them to grow successfully in drought-prone environments (Ashraf, 2010). In turn, aflatoxins are found to contaminate a wide variety of important agricultural products such as corn, peanuts, tree nuts and cottonseed especially under extreme heat and drought conditions (Payne, 1998; Chen et al., 2003). Aflatoxin contamination significantly reduces the value of grain as an animal feed and export commodity (Chen et al., 2002).