Plant scientists find hottest pepper
LAS CRUCES - When it comes to spices, chili peppers rank somewhere between mild taste sensation and criminal assault. Now, two plant scientists at New Mexico State University describe what may rank as the most notorious chili of all: the Bhut Jolokia, from Assam, India.
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Rumor had it that Bhut Jolokia was the hottest of the hot, but no one had put it to the test. The New Mexico State team, led by Paul Bosland, received a sample seed in 2001. But it took three years of careful cultivation to grow enough of the chilies to provide the seeds needed for detailed, repeated field experiments.
The duo measured this fiery fruit’s hotness at a record-breaking 1 million Scoville units, the standard measure of a chili’s perceived ”heat”. By comparison, Jalepeños that grace tacos or salsa only reach 2,500 to 10,000 Scoville units. According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the previous hotshot -a variety of Habanero chili called Red Savina- reaches 577,000 Scoville units.
The researchers also were interested in Bhut’s ancestry. Using DNA analysis, they concluded that the chili is a derivative of Capsicum chinense, a type that includes Scotch Bonnet peppers. And it appears to have a bit of Capsicum frutescense, which includes Tabasco peppers, thrown in for good measure. The study appears in the current issue of HortScience, a journal of the American Society for Horticultural Science. (Christian Science Monitor).
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