Some facts about peppers
Chile peppers and their various cultivars originate in the Americas; they
are now grown around the world because they are widely used as spices or
vegetables in cuisine, and even as medicine. They are the fruit of the
plant Capsicum.
Christopher Columbus was one of the first Europeans to encounter them
(in the Caribbean), and called them "peppers" because of their similarity
in taste (though not in appearance) with the Old World peppers of the
Piper genus. Columbus was keen to prove (incorrectly) that he had in
fact opened a new direct nautical route to Asia, contrary to reality and
the expert consensus of the time, and it has been speculated that he was
therefore inclined to denote these new substances "pepper" in order to
associate them with the known Asian spice.
Diego Álvarez
Chanca, a physician on Columbus' second voyage to the West Indies in 1493,
brought the first chili peppers to Spain, and first wrote about their
medicinal effects in 1494.
From Mexico, at the time the Spanish colony that controlled commerce
with Asia, chili peppers spread rapidly into the Philippines and then to
India, China, Korea and Japan with the aid of European sailors. The new
spice was quickly incorporated into the local cuisines.
An alternate sequence for chili pepper's spread has the
Portuguese picking up the pepper from Spain, and thence to India, as
described by Lizzie Collingham in her book Curry . The evidence
provided is that the chili pepper figures heavily in the cuisine of the Goan region of India, which was the site of a Portuguese colony (e.g.
Vindaloo, an Indian evolution of a Portuguese dish). Collingham also
describes the journey of chili peppers from India, through Central Asia
and Turkey, to Hungary, where it became the national spice in the form of
paprika.
Peppers are commonly broken down into three groupings; bell peppers, sweet
peppers, and hot peppers. Most popular pepper varieties are seen as
falling into one of these categories, or as a cross between them.
The substances that gives chile peppers their heat is capsaicin (8-methyl-N-vanillyl-6-nonenamide)
and several related chemicals, collectively called capsaicinoids.
Capsaicin is the primary ingredient in pepper spray. The "heat" of chile
peppers is measured in Scoville units. Bell peppers rank at zero Scoville
units, jalapeños at 3,000–6,000 Scoville units, and habaneros at 300,000
Scoville units. The record for the highest number of Scoville units in a
chile pepper is assigned by the Guinness Book of Records to the Red Savina
Habanero, measuring 577,000 units.
However, a recent report was made of
a pepper from India called the
Naga Jolokia measuring at 855,000 Scoville units. Both the Red Savina
and the Naga Jolokia claims are disputed as to their validity, and lack
independent verification.As of April 2006, a report has been made of the
Naga Dorset pepper, a variety of the Naga Jolokia pepper cultivated
exclusively by the Peppers by Post company in Dorset, England. They claim
a lab used by the American Spice Trade Association measured their pepper
at 923,000 SHU. For reference, pure capsaicin rates at 15,000,000 Scoville
units.
Chile peppers are popular in food. They are rich in vitamin C and are
believed to have many beneficial effects on health. The pain caused by
capsaicin stimulates the brain to produce endorphins, natural
opioids which act as analgesics and produce a sense of well-being. Psychologist
Paul Rozin suggests that eating chiles is an example of a "constrained
risk" like riding a roller coaster, in which extreme sensations like pain
and fear can be enjoyed because individuals know that these sensations are
not actually harmful.
Birds do not have the same sensitivity to capsaicin as mammals, as
capsaicin acts on a specific nerve receptor in mammals, and avian nervous
systems are rather different. Chile peppers are in fact a favorite food of
many birds living in the chile peppers' natural range. The flesh of the
peppers provides the birds with a nutritious meal rich in vitamin C. In
return, the seeds of the peppers are distributed by the birds, as they
drop the seeds while eating the pods or the seeds pass through the
digestive tract unharmed. This relationship is theorized to have promoted
the evolution of the protective capsaicin.
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