Hi chance1001,
Was this a burning issue for you? :-)
You are right, a pepper IS the hottest food in the world. *Which*
pepper is a bit up for grabs...it seems the Red Savina Habanero pepper
is the hottest, at over 577,000 Scoville units of hotness (more about
Scoville units below.) and may be tied with the Indian Tezpur pepper.
A new Francisca Habanero that is being developed is purported to be
hotter still!
On this Home Cooking site, the Red Savina Habanero and the Indian
Tezpur are considered the hottest peppers.
http://homecooking.about.com/library/weekly/blhotchiles.htm
For now, we can consider a Habanero pepper, be it the Red Sovina,
Indian Tezur or the experimental Francisca to be the hottest food in
the world!
http://www.egconsult.com/Scoville.htm
According to this site, ?...the "Red Savina" Habanero has been tested
at over 577,000 Scoville units! This is so much hotter than the
normal Habanero chile pepper, that the "Guiness Book of Records" have
accepted it as "the hottest chili pepper" in the world. Even now,
breeders are attempting to beat this. The new Francisca Habanero is
said to be hotter still!"
This site explains Scoville Units, the units by which ?hotness? is measured:
http://www.victoryseeds.com/information/scoville.html
Now, humans can and do eat these peppers. As you will read below, the
more you eat hot peppers, the more you can tolerate them. Capsaicin is
what makes peppers hot, and some studies have shown that one can
actually overdose on capsaicin, although it is very hard to do!
?A single drop of capsaicin diluted in 100,000 drops of water can
still blister the tongue?
http://www.geocities.com/NapaValley/3378/whypeppersarehot.htm
?C.L. Winek conducted a study that was published in Drug and Chemical
Toxicology that examined the overdose potential of Tabasco® Sauce. He
concluded that a person of average weight would have to consume nearly
a half gallon of the sauce to overdose and become unconscious.?
http://www.fiery-foods.com/dave/cap_od7.html
?Pepper aficionados know that if one can withstand the initial sense
that the mouth is on fire, desensitization follows. That is, the more
you eat, the more you can tolerate. There is a physical basis for this
phenomenon. In cells growing in culture and in laboratory animals,
several hours of exposure to pure capsaicin leads to degeneration and
death of the exposed tissues.
Researchers hypothesize that prolonged but not dangerous exposure to
capsaicin by hot-food lovers may actually kill pain fibers, and this
is why they can tolerate the spicy food. This effect has led to uses
of capsaicin in topical treatments for arthritis and herpes outbreaks.
The scientists' elucidation of precisely how capsaicin sets the human
mouth afire may lead to development of new types of drugs to treat
chronic pain.?
Surely this is the hottest hot sauce!
?Pyro Diablo is the concentrated capsicum mixed with soybean oil. One
drop is over 700 times stronger than an average habanero?
http://www.pyrodiablo.com/index.htm
?When you eat 'hot' foods like chilli peppers, you actually excite the
pain receptors in your mouth.?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/humanbody/body/factfiles/taste/taste_animation.shtml
You may find this interesting reading:
http://www.pbs.org/safarchive/3_ask/archive/qna/3294_peppers.html
Hope this answers your question! If any part of this answer is
unclear, please request an Answer Clarification, before rating.
Regards,
crabcakes
Search Terms
capsaicin tolerance
hottest food
hot peppers
scoville units |
