The new hottest chili pepper in town packs a spicy and potentially deadly wallop. Credit: Mirrorpix/Newscom via Zuma
Posted on 10/10/2017 7:20:51 AM PDT by Red Badger
Death by chili pepper may not be a common way to die, but it's certainly a possibility for unlucky souls adventurous enough to try Dragon's Breath, the new hottest pepper in town.
Mike Smith, the owner of Tom Smith's Plants in the United Kingdom, developed the record-breaking pepper with researchers at the University of Nottingham. He doesn't recommend the pepper for eating, however, because it may be the last thing a person ever tastes.
So how exactly do hot peppers, such as Dragon's Breath, maim or kill those who try to eat them? Let's start with the pepper's spicy stats: Dragon's Breath is so spicy, it clocks in at 2.48 million heat units on the Scoville scale, a measurement of concentration of capsaicin, the chemical that releases that spicy-heat sensation people feel when they bite into a chili pepper. Dragon's Breath is hotter than the current record-holder, the Carolina Reaper, which packs an average of 1.6 million Scoville heat units, as well as U.S. military pepper sprays, which hit about 2 million on the Scoville scale, according to the Daily Post.
In comparison, the habanero pepper is downright mild at about 350,000 Scoville heat units, as is the jalapeño pepper, which registers at up to 8,000 heat units, according to PepperScale, a site dedicated to hot peppers. Bell peppers have a recessive gene that stops the production of capsaicin, so they have zero heat units, PepperScale reported. [Tip of the Tongue: The 7 (Other) Flavors We Can Taste]
Dragon's Breath, in contrast, is so potent that it will be kept in a sealed container when it goes on display at the Chelsea Flower Show from May 23 to 27 in London, the Daily Post reported.
"I've tried it on the tip of my tongue, and it just burned and burned," Smith told the Daily Post. "I spat it out in about 10 seconds."
Spicy havoc
When a daredevil, such as Smith, eats an exceptionally spicy pepper, the first sensation is usually mouth numbness, according to Paul Bosland, professor of horticulture at New Mexico State University and director of the Chile Pepper Institute.
"What's happening is that your receptors in your mouth are sending a signal to your brain that there's pain, and it's in the form of hotness or heat, and so your brain produces endorphins to block that pain," Bosland told Live Science previously.
However, unusually hot peppers go beyond numbing the mouth. When these extreme examples are eaten, the body inflates liquid-filled "balloons," or blisters, in areas exposed to the concentrated capsaicin, including the mouth and (if swallowed) the throat, Bosland said. These blisters can help absorb the capsaicin's heat.
"The body is sensing a burn, and it's sacrificing the top layer of cells to say, 'OK, they're going to die now to prevent letting the heat get farther into the body,'" Bosland said.
Some peppers, such as Dragon's Breath, are so hot, that blistering alone would not contain the heat. Rather, their capsaicin permeates the blisters and continues to activate receptors on the nerve endings underneath them, which can lead to a painful burning sensation lasting at least 20 minutes, Bosland said.
In some cases, people vomit up the pepper, as did one 47-year-old man in California who ate a burger topped with ghost pepper puree, according to a 2016 case report in the Journal of Emergency Medicine. The man vomited so violently, he ruptured his esophagus and needed medical attention, Live Science reported.
The immune system can go into overdrive if the capsaicin is too concentrated. That's because TRPV1 receptors — proteins on nerve endings that detect heat — are activated by capsaicin, and erroneously interpret capsaicin as a signal of extreme heat, Live Science reported previously. This mistake can send the body's burn defenses through the roof. [Why Does Your Nose Run When You Eat Spicy Food?]
In some cases, eating a hot pepper can lead to anaphylactic shock, severe burns and even the closing of a person's airways, which can be deadly if left untreated, according to the Post.
However, Smith didn't intend for Dragon's Breath to be part of a meal. Instead, he grew it so that it could be used as a topical numbing anesthetic for people who are allergic to regular anesthetic.
The new hottest chili pepper in town packs a spicy and potentially deadly wallop. Credit: Mirrorpix/Newscom via Zuma
No thanks. Super chiles. Jalapeños. And Habaneros for flavoring. That’s it for me.
Agreed. It’s time to have a rational discussion on common-sense pepper control. If even one life is saved, wouldn’t it be worth it?
Really?
I'm a fire eater and know my way around Mombasas and Habaneros, I've even dabbled with Ghost in tiny doses, so I'm not an amateur, but with that experience, comes the realization that weapons grade heat isn't something to be toyed with.
Ghost pepper puree, the planet would be a better place without idiots like that making decisions.
Soon to be a popular challenge on YouBoob.
I’m a chili-head. I don’t go past Habanero. You don’t get much flavor past that, just demonic levels of heat that give you serious regrets. Worst yet, it still has to exit and it still hurts.
I’ve tried Ghost Peppers in several ways. No flavor, just pain.
Best I’ve had was Wild Wings Cafe’s Chernobyl Wings. Great flavor, left me giggling for 20 minutes.
Yes, there was a counter for buying baked goods and then there was a wall probably 40 feet wide that contained what seemed like every hot sauce known to man.
We stood there and read as many titles as we could stand cuz we were laughing so hard.
For example, "So Hot Ya Won't Know What Hit Cha" and a set of four bottles which were in ascending order of hotness all having to do with how bad that particular lower spot will feel if you eat it.
They would probably put this Dragon's Breath in a special room with key card access.
I didn't buy any hot sauce, but their poppy seed rolls were delish.
I bought some Dave’s Instant Insanity Sauce and splashed it on my eggs one morning. I drank about a gallon of milk to put the flames out. Afterwards I read the warning label on the back which warned of possible death if you have any heart conditions.
I learned that it only took one small drop on the tip of a toothpick to fire up a 2 gallon pot of soup or stew. That one 4 ounce bottle lasted me about 15 years.
http://store.davesgourmet.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=DAIN
I have several Wild Wing restaurants within a hour’s drive...LOVE their sauces. I usually get a few sauced with ‘Braveheart’, the hottest on the menu. Love the flavor of ‘Red Dragon’. Rumor has it that there is a sauce hotter than ‘Braveheart’, but you have to order it at the bar and sign an insurance waiver. They deny such an item exists...
The chili pepper arms race moves fast. ‘Pepper X’ has already supplanted the Dragon’s Breath pepper as hottest, clocking in at 3.18m Scoville units:
http://www.delish.com/food-news/news/a55687/pepper-x-hottest-pepper/
It’s not a hot pepper unless your mouth goes numb, you break out into a sweat, you drool uncontrollably, your ears ring, and your skin itches.
Puckerbutt’s Currie is the MAN!
I can only shake my head over all this hot pepper one-upmanship.
I keep Texas Pete, Tapatio, and Mrs. Renfro’s Green Jalapeno Salsa in my kitchen and use them fairly often.
They taste good and are cheap ... what better recommendation could I give?
Wow!....Thanks!...............
These peppers are usually not made foe human consumption.
They are used for producing Capsaicin , the hot chemical, for industrial and military applications.........................
LOL...beat me to it!
I learned my lesson with one of those million scoville Carolina Reaper sauces. I like hot sauces and was given the bottle as a gift, so like I would do any other hot sauce, I made some fried potatoes and splashed a liberal amount over them. I knew it was a dumb idea as soon as I took the first taste as the heat and pain overpowered everything, but stupidly I went ahead and finished an entire bowl as my mouth had already went numb at that point. Flash forward a couple hours and I was in the bathroom with the WORST stomach ache of my life, projectile vomiting the contents of my stomach, I honestly thought I was in serious danger of death.
And that’s just thinking about it.
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