Indonesian Sambal is about as high as I want to go.
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.
6 feet under kinda ‘earthy’?.................
What is that from?.................
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/
Arms race ;)
Someone suggested dropping down some in North Korea for rocket boy...may be on to something ;) Maybe Rodman can send a gift box of candies with this stuff inside them...rocket boy is so overweight, cardiac arrest is likely imminent at some point in his future...peppers could bring it sooner.
Oh yeah. So after my little egg splashing incident, I told my nephew about it. He had just gotten out of the Army and was staying with me. So he was going to show me how much a man he was and did the same thing, ignoring my warnings.
He thought he was going to die!
As a fan of hot sauce, beer, and Scotch, may I opine that the Scoville units arms race, the IPA/hops arms race, and the peat arms race have all gone so far beyond the point at which things stop tasting good that I’ve pretty much jumped off the train.
These peppers are for industrial and military uses. I wouldn’t eat any......................
Thanks. I have never seen that movie...................
BFLR
That’ll sear your hemorrhoids.
Asian spicy food makes my bronchial tubes sweat, and I end up with a wet cough that sounds like a death rattle.
If you put plenty of super hot sauce in water in a good sized water gun and shoot someone with it, you can do some serious damage.
You’re Closer than you suspect...................
Some flavor, spice and a little heat are fine by me, but I fail to see the attraction in eating something that causes discomfort to the degree that some of these peppers do.
I think it’s an addiction.....................
Exactly. Excessive heat makes any flavor indistinguishable.
I drink Tapatio directly from the bottle.
Does it even count as hot sauce?
Indonesian Sambal is about as high as I want to go.
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