Abstract:As a characteristic geographical agricultural landmark in Xinjiang，“Sipingtou” pepper undergoes color changes during its long-term storage，which，however，is rarely reported. To investigate the main paths and reaction types of color deterioration under different storage conditions，dried peppers were stored at 25 ℃light avoidance，37 ℃light avoidance，37 ℃light and 45 ℃light avoidance for 70 d. Analyze the changes of browning degree，5-hydroxymethylfurfural（5-HMF），carotenoids，total phenols，ascorbic acid，reducing sugar and other indexes content，and perform correlation and pathway analysis.The results showed that browning degree was highly significant correlated with other indexes under all storage conditions（P＜0.01）. It is suggested that browning is the results of the combined effect of carotenoid degradation，Maillard reaction，ascorbic degradation and polyphenol autoxidation.The path analysis indicated that ascorbic acid had the greatest direct effect on browning degree at 25 ℃light avoidance，and the interaction between amino acid and ascorbic acid was the primary factor determining browning degree. Under the conditions of 37 ℃light avoidance，37 ℃light and 45 ℃light avoidance，interaction of 5-HMF had the maximal direct effect on browning degree.The primary determinant of browning in three storage methods were interaction of 5-HMF，interaction of amino acid and 5-HMF and interaction of 5-HMF and total phenols successively.