Types of Chile Peppers

Chile peppers are known as chile peppers, chili peppers, chilli peppers or simply chile. Chile peppers are the fruit of the Capsicum plant which is from the nightshade family Solanaceae. Chile peppers and their cousins originate in the Americas and are now grown all over the world for their use as spices and vegetables in all kinds of cuisines and even as medicine.

Chile peppers have been a huge part of the human diet in the Americas since before 7500 BC and were domesticated between the years 5200 and 3400 BC. One of the very first crops that was cultivated in the Americas were chile peppers. It is also believed that chile peppers where cultivated by prehistoric peoples in various parts of South and Middle America from Mexico to Peru.

When chile peppers were discovered by Columbus they were named ‘peppers’ because of their similarity in taste to the Old World peppers of the Piper genus. These types of peppers look quite different than chile peppers.

A physcian on Colubus’ second voyage in 1493, to the West Indies brought the first chile peppers back to Europe. Diego Alvarez Chanca brought chile peppers to Spain and wrote about their medicinal qualities in 1494. From there chile peppers spread quickly into China, India and Japan with Portuguese merchant sailors. The new chile peppers were rapidly absorbed into local cuisines.

Chile peppers are given their heat by substances known as capsaicin as well as several related chemicals which are collectively referred to as capsaicinoids. Capsaicin is also the main active ingredient in pepper spray.

The most common species of chile peppers are Capsicum annuum that includes common varieties such as paprika, jalapenos, bell peppers and chiltepin, Capsicum frutescens, which includes the Tabasco and cayenne peppers, and Capsicum baccatum, which includes the South American aji peppers.

The heat of chile peppers is measured in Scoville units. Bell peppers rank zero in Scoville units, whereas jalapenos are 3,000-6,000 Scoville units and habaneros rank at 300,000 Scoville units. The Red Savina Habanero is the highest ranking chile pepper on the Scoville scale with a rating of 577,000 Scoville units. There is also the Naga Jolokia pepper from India which reportedly measures 855,000 Scoville units. Pure capsaicin is rated as having 16,000,000 Scoville units of heat.

Chile peppers are eaten cooked and raw. The heat tends to be concentrated at the top of a chile pepper pod, as the capsaicin is delivered to each pepper through the stem and then travels down through the rest of the chile pepper. The heat of chle peppers used in cuisine can be controlled by removing the seeds and inner membranes of a chile pepper.

There are many popular dishes from Mexican, Indonesian, Szechuan and Thai cuisines that focus on the chile pepper. Although the plant was unknown in Asia until Europeans introduced it, it has quickly been adopted by local cuisines.

In addition to heat, capsaicin has antibacterial effects and properties, such that foods cooked with chile peppers tend to last longer before spoiling. Chile peppers are also high in vitamin C and believed to offer various healthful benefits. Interstingly, capsaicin triggers the brain to produce endorphins which are natural opioids that act as analgesics as well as provide a sense of wellbeing.

Birds often eat chile peppers and have none of the same heat reactions that humans and other mammals do. Strangely enough, the ingredient that is used to flavor grape soda has a similar heat effect to birds that capsaicin does on humans.

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