SHUs are based upon the chile chewer's perception of heat rather than total capsaicinoid concentration, so SHUs vary between individuals depending upon the sensitivity of their palates.
This measurement is now known as Scoville Heat Units (SHU).
Superhot peppers how to#
But how to compare between individual peppers, and indeed, between different varieties of peppers? In 1912, American pharmacist Wilbur Scoville created an empirical method to measure how "hot", or pungent, chile peppers are to those who bite into them. Some, like Bell peppers, are boringly devoid of capsaicinoids, whereas the fruits of habañeros and red cayenne peppers are perfused with these biochemical delights. But birds, which act as valuable seed dispersers, lack this receptor, so they cheerfully munch their way through the reddest and juiciest pepper fruits with impunity (doi: 10.1038/35086653), whilst you can barely see through the tears streaming down your crimson face.Ĭhiles vary in their hotness. there's that delightful endorphin high.Ĭhile peppers evolved capsaicinoids, a group of five similar chemical compounds, to defend their fruits from fungal infections and from mammalian predators, which would otherwise destroy their precious seeds.
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This binding is translated by your brain as being hot and painful, which then causes your body to respond by sweating and choking, with numbness of the face and hands, perhaps even some skin blistering, and then. Marathon runners experience the same "high", although they have to work a lot harder for it.Ĭhile peppers get their "heat" from an evolutionary collaboration between their biochemistry and yours: they produce one or more capsaicinoids, which are chemical irritants, and you produce the capsaicin receptor to which those biochemicals bind. Only later did I learn that this is a "natural high" due to endorphins released by your body in response to pain.
Although the chile was hot - and yes, I did tearfully choke on it for a few minutes - I also experienced a delightful "high" soon after eating it. I grew up fearing chile peppers - until I tried one when I was still at an impressionable age. Chile peppers: you either love them or fear them
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