All About The Worlds Hottest Pepper
There are many who believe that the hottest pepper in the world is the Red Savina Habanero, or other varieties of Habanero peppers. In the last decade, High Performance (or Pressure) Liquid Chromatography has proven that the hottest pepper in the world is actually the Bhut Jolokia, or the Ghost Pepper.
Introduced to the Western world in 2000, this pepper hails from Assam, India, and has also been traced to Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and Pakistan. Researchers in Assam published a report in 2000 that stated that the Bhut Jolokia was the hottest pepper in the world. Researchers at New Mexico State University wanted to test the pepper itself, and began cultivating the plants on their own.
The climate of New Mexico, as well as other variables, made it difficult to get a good crop. The pepper's heat is increased by high rainfall and high humidity. By 2005 they were finally able to harvest the peppers, and in 2006 the Guinness Book of World Records declared the Bhut Jolokia to be the hottest pepper in the world. Bhut Jolokia is available to consumers who are looking to find hot pepper seeds for their own (cautious) cultivation.
The heat of peppers used to be measured by diluting the peppers in sugar water until the judge could no longer recognize any heat. This was an extremely subjective method and was more recently replaced by a more scientific method. HPLC is a way of separating compounds from each other and measuring them. The compound that is responsible for the heat in chili peppers is called Capsaicin. The amount present is measured in Scoville Heat Units (SHU's). For example, the amount of capsaicin present in a Jalapeño pepper is somewhere between 2,500 and 8,000 SHU, and a bell pepper, which is not spicy at all, has 1 SHU.
The Red Savina Habañero pepper has been measured to have between 350,000 and 580,000 SHU. The Ghost Pepper grown in New Mexico shattered the standing record with 1,001,304 SHU. That is almost twice as much as the highest end of the Red Savina's spectrum.
There are quite a few different names for this volcanic pepper, including:
Naga Jolokia (Cobra Snake) Sanskrit
Naga Morich (Cobra Chili) Bangladesh
Oo-Morok (Tree Chili) Manipur
Raja Mirchi (King of Chilies) and Nai Miris (Cobra Chili) Sri Lanka
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Comments
A most wonderful article!!!!!! I have not yet tried the Bhut Jolokia, or the Ghost Pepper but I have grown various types of Thai peppers. This pepper I truly found to be hotter than the Habanero... I am a true hot pepper connoisseur. I have an extremely high tolerance (and yes, I can taste the flavor of my food) I was a daredevil as a child and ate these marinated beef burritos, I swear they were soaked in pure hot pepper oil for a week... no-one could eat them, except me.. I would not show pain!) So, in turn , I have never found anyone that could keep up with me and my obsession with the glorious taste of hot peppers... thanks for the inspiration... I had to tell you the story. :-) new on the block... will soon have articles up.
I am not one for spicy food, but something about this article enticed me to try one...I am going to keeo my eyes open for one that next time that I enter a grocery store
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