Facts about Chilli pepper

National chilli day began in the U.S.A. in 1967 as a celebration of chillies con carne but spread to the U.K. in praise to chillies themselves.

·        Chilli day is celebrated on the fourth Thursday in February on the grounds that hot food is most needed in a cold month.

·        Aztec women believed in chilli as a cosmetic and beautified themselves with a skin cream made of chilli powder and urine.

·        The Mexican have eaten chilli since 7000Bc in Mexico and cultivated it from 3500Bc.

·        The Scoville scale for measuring the heat of chillies was devised by Wilbur L Scoville in 1912.

·        The Carolina reaper scores 2.2 million Scoville units, which is higher than Police pepper spray.

·        The world record for eating chilli con carne is 2.185 gallons in six minutes by Joey Chestnut.

·        Using pepper as a weapon goes back 1,000s of years. In ancient Asia bags filled with pepper and spices were thrown at enemies. In Japan ground pepper / chillies were thrown into the faces of criminals as a form of punishment.

·        In the U.S.A. all postal staff carries pepper spray to defend against dogs and other animal attacks.

·        Farmers in Africa use chillies attached to fences to keep elephants from their crops. Elephants hate the smell.

·        The Indian army are testing chilli grenades as a form of non- lethal weapons to use on hidden enemies.

·        The big Jim chilli plant produces the largest known pods in the excess of a foot long, not bad for a plant that only grows around 2- 3 tall.

·        The early civilizations such as the Incas, Mayans and Aztecs   chilli peppers were used as a currency.

·        The smallest known chilli is arguably the Rodriguez chilli from the island of the same name, it is the sister island to Mauritius. The very small fruits are very hot and are used extensively amongst the islands to make sauces and chutneys.

·        It is estimated that Mexicans eat 6 kilos of fresh chillies and 0.5 kilos of dried chillies each per year which means they eat more chillies than onions and tomatoes put together.

·        Chilli growers continually try to produce the world’s hottest chillies resulting in record being broken on a regular basis. Possibly the best known super hot chilli is the Bhut Jolokia otherwise known as the Naga/ Ghost chilli this was the world record holder in 2007 rated at around 1,000,000 Scoville units, and yet only 6 years later the new top dog is the Moruga Scorpion measuring an incredible 2,000,000+ Scoville units more than double that of the Ghost, who knows what they might reach in the future !!

By SUMAN SINGHAL

M.Sc 1^st SEMESTER

INSTITUTE OF FOOD TECNOLOGY