BiOLOGICAL WARFARE WHY CHILLIS ARE HOT!!!

 

 

It’s the heat that were after let’s be honest it’s why we all grow chilies!

The problem is that this search for heat has now become so extreme that quite a few of the chilies available would be classed as biological weapons one of my favourite quotes comes from Lloyd Matheson  of the  University of Iowa who said “capsaicin is so powerful that chemists who handle the crystalline  powder must work in a filtered tox room in full body protection. The suit has a closed hood to prevent inhaling the powder. It’s not toxic but you will wish you were dead if you inhale it”.

And that is the active ingredient in your chilli

in the chilies we grow and also the pepper spray popular with the police in some South American countries!

You can tell roughly how hot your chillies will be as they are all measured in Scoville’s, I can feel a GEEK  LINK coming here  for those of you who want the history of  Scoville’s.

The reason chilies are hot is that they evolved during the Cretaceous period and the heat was a deterrent to dinosaurs to stop the plants from being eaten – interestingly the ability of chilies to germinate is stopped when passing through a mammals gut, but unaffected by avian digestive juices as this is how the distribution of chillis naturally evolved.

The ability of the chili to create extreme pain is unaffected by cooking or freezing and water won’t neutralise it, pure alcohol would but may do you as much harm as good.

Having said that, they are one of the most rewarding plants to grow per squarefoot in a greenhouse, and invaluable in the kitchen.

You can tell i find them irresistible – here are some I grew last summer

 

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