Capsaicin in Peppers

https://luciditysystems.com/2020/10/23/capsaicin-in-peppers/

27 8 4 years ago

allears• 4 years ago

I'm not a chemist, or a scientist of any sort, but isn't this reinventing the wheel? I thought that gas chromatographs were the standard way of evaluating the amount of capsaicin in peppers, leading to the Scoville rating. Perhaps the author should have done a little googling before starting his experiment.

phantom_of_cato2• 4 years ago

I thought that gas chromatographs were the standard way of evaluating the amount of capsaicin in peppers

The "GC" in "miniGC" probably stands for gas chromatography.

z3c0• 4 years ago

It'd be interesting to see how this tracks against Scoville rankings, which I've found to be mostly useless. I've always found the gaps between rankings too large to be able to really intuit the difference between two peppers without just popping them in your mouth and hoping for the best.

phantom_of_cato2• 4 years ago

I think the part for extracting capsaicinoids is essentially the same with the original subjective (i.e. organoleptic) Scoville test.

However, there's a difference in the method for quantifying pungency. In the original Scoville test the extract (diluted in water and sugar) was given to a taste panel, decreasing the concentration until the majority (say 3 out of 5) of the panelists couldn't detect any pungency. The amount of dilution needed to achieve that was then used to get an estimate. [1]

That is now superseded by using chromatography (like what is done here) to get more precise and objective numbers. (but you could possibly argue that maybe data on the subjective effect is what we really want)

[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scoville_scale

Cupertino950142• 4 years ago

I'm not a chemist, either, and all the methodology was, um... only academically interesting to me.

But there already are Scoville ratings of peppers. I don't know how those were derived, or whether this guy's methods produce better results. As someone else says, the Scoville ratings aren't always useful, so it would be nice to have some easy test for whether you should pop that thing into your mouth.

taxicabjesus• 4 years ago

There was a comment on Slashdot years ago about making special vodka with hot peppers, vodka and Mason jars: chop peppers in half, put in mason jar, close mason jar, put at back of cabinet for a few months.

I don’t consume this very often anymore, and my tolerance for capsaicin is not what it once was, but I think you never go back to the tolerance of people who have not trained themselves to tolerate relatively-high amounts of the stuff.

Had a girlfriend who got down on herself and locked herself in the bedroom with a bottle of wine. She came out when it was finished and said she needed more alcohol. I reached into the freezer and handed her my bottle of special vodka. She tipped up the bottle and took a generous shot. She instantly knew what I’d done: “asshole”, then went outside and threw it all up. She didn’t drink alcohol again for 3 or 5 years.

Lots of my taxi passengers had drinking problems. One of my favorite stories was the old guy who explicitly pointed this out to me. Eventually I mostly figured out better strategies for dealing with the cause behind the compulsion…

But capsaicin-vodka is a good way to sour drunks on helping themselves to your fine liquor collection.

Cupertino950142• 4 years ago

The part about taxi passengers inevitably reminds one of Better Call Saul. Without any spoilers: the part about Gene Takovic in Omaha.

Markoff• 4 years ago

Spiciest pepper in the world developed by Romanian scientists waiting for approval to beat Carolina Reaper

DeepL translation:

If you knew that the world's most terrible chilli peppers belonged to Americans or Mexicans, things might be different. And that's because the hottest pepper in the world is now a Romanian one.

It was created in Buzău by researchers and is in the approval process. It has already caused a sensation at the world congress in Paris. According to specialists, the Buzau chilli pepper is at least two thousand times hotter than a normal chilli pepper.

Romanian plant genetics specialists have crossed a local variety of chilli pepper with several international varieties. The research started when a local sausage and babic producer in Buzău asked agronomists to produce a slightly spicier variety of pepper to help in the manufacturing process. That's how they ended up with the pairing from which, say the Romanians, the world's hottest pepper was obtained.

Costel Vinatoru, director of the Buzău Plant Genetic Resources Bank: "The oldest Romanian variety of chilli pepper, popularly known as goat's horn chilli, was involved in the crossbreeding, and it helped us to obtain the hottest pepper, considered the hottest pepper in the world."

The "hotness level" is determined internationally according to the Scoville unit which measures the level of capsaicin in peppers, an organic substance present in different species of hot peppers.

According to the Guinness Book, the world record for the hottest pepper is held by Carolina Reaper, which originated in the United States.

However, according to the researchers in Buzău, their pepper, which does not yet have a name, has a constant 2.4 million Scoville units, beating the world leader in terms of hotness. The Romanian invention is in the approval process.

Costel Vinatoru, director of the Buzau Plant Genetic Resources Bank: "We have achieved this first, this hitherto unheard of record. What we presented there, a chilli pepper that exceeds 2 400 000 units."

An American grows the world's most expensive hot pepper in Romania And the hot pepper industry is booming. But after marrying a Romanian woman, an American has moved to Galați, where he owns several restaurants and grows various types of chillies for sophisticated menus. Freddy's garden also grows the world's most expensive chilli pepper, Aji Charapita.

"This one from Peru, the most expensive. It can cost about a thousand dollars. That's Yellow Scorpion and Carolina Viper - one of the hottest peppers in the world/You can't eat it raw. We process it - put on gloves and mask. On the hands, on the eyes, it's harmful. But... superb!" he said.

The world's hottest peppers in Alba In Ciugud, in Alba, a young man with a passion for exotic crops bought seeds from England two years ago to grow the world's hottest peppers. He now has three of these extremely hot varieties in his plot. The peppers of these varieties need high temperatures and about five months before they can be harvested.

Florian Hada, hot pepper grower: "They can be dried, eaten fresh and the strong ones at the moment are Carolina Reaper which are between 1.4 million and 2 million on the Scoville scale. They are extremely, extremely hot not everyone can eat them."

And some of the crop even ends up being used in desserts. For example, some confectioners use chilli peppers to get a very special flavour for a vanilla caramel custard.

Cosmin Toma, chef: "I made a caramel cream that is very smooth, a little sweet, bitter, and I added the chilli pepper that gives it a special flavour/but the star is the chilli pepper."

As the areas under chilli pepper cultivation in Romania are too small, not even the Ministry of Agriculture knows the total amount harvested.

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

https://stirileprotv.ro/stiri/actualitate/cel-mai-iute-ardei...

Capsaicin in Peppers

Related Stories