Some like it hotter

Text and Photos By Henrylito D. Tacio
When I was still a kid, I only knew two kinds of peppers: atsal (bell or sweet pepper) and sili (hot or chili pepper). I never knew that both were members of the same group of family Solanaceous, which also include eggplant and tomato.
In 2000, when I went to the United States for the first time, I found out that atsal came in different sizes and colors. There were as huge as my fist and you can pick what caught your fancy: violet, orange, green, yellow, or red.
My sister Elena smiled when I tried to touch all of them. “They’re for real, Manoy,” she said. “They are not plastic.” Please, pardon my ignorance. I grew up in a country where bell peppers are red.
The December 2014 issue of Agriculture featured hot peppers in various forms, sizes, and colors. The article was written by my favorite agricultural writer, Zacarias B. Sarian, the editor of the magazine and a recipient of the Ramon Magsaysay Award.
“Did you know that somebody is making ice cream with hot chili and other non-traditional ingredients?” wrote Sarian. “One version is made of chili, ginger, and coco cream and he calls it ‘Be Cool Express.’ Other variants are chili calamansi and tablea chili.”
When hotness or coldness of the day is measured, temperature is used. But in chili peppers, the measure of “hotness” is through the Scoville Heat Units (SHUs). It was Wilbur L. Scoville who developed the Scoville Organoleptic Test in 1912 while working at the Parke Davis pharmaceutical company.
chili peppers get their kick from a chemical called capsaicin located in the inside wall of the pepper pod. Capsaicin is reportedly about 100 times hotter than the active principle piperine of black pepper. In an article, Rico R. Magda wrote: “The compound capsaicin is almost insoluble in water and needs to be emulsified if used in food. Capsaicin extracted by organic solvent becomes gummy or oily syrup when concentrated.”
In his article, Sarian reported of a chili pepper called Trinidad Moruga Scorpion which, according to the New Mexico State University’s Chili Pepper Institute, “the hottest chili in the world.” A native of the district of Moruga in Trinidad and Tobago, it has a mean heat of more than 1.2 million SHUs; some individual plants have a mean heat of more than 2 million SHUs.
One in four people eats chilis every day, according to Reader’s Digest intrepid reporter Robert Kiener. chili peppers are used around the world to make a countless variety of sauces, known as hot sauce, chili sauce, or pepper sauce.
Indian cooking has multiple uses for it – from simple snacks to wonderfully complex curries. It is dried, roasted and salted as a side dish for rice varieties. Sambal is a versatile relish made from chili peppers as well as other ingredients such as garlic, onion, shallots, salt, vinegar and sugar, which is popular in Indonesia and Malaysia.
In Italian cuisine, crushed chili pepper flakes are a common ingredient on pizza, among other things. The leaves, mildly bitter but not nearly as hot as the fruits that come from the same plant, are cooked as vegetable in Filipino cuisine, where they are used in the chicken soup (tinola). In Korean cuisine, the leaves may be used in kimchi.
Ripe chilis contain high amounts of vitamin C and carotene. Unripe fruits contain a considerably lower amount of both substances. In addition, chili peppers are a good source of most B vitamins, and vitamin B6 in particular. They are very high in potassium, magnesium, and iron. (The leaves are excellent sources of calcium, and iron and a good source of phosphorus, vitamin B, and vitamin A.)
chili peppers originated in South America. They have been a part of the human diet in the Americas since at least 7500 BC. There is archaeological evidence at sites located in southwestern Ecuador that chili peppers were domesticated more than 6000 years ago, and is one of the first crops cultivated in Central and South America that is self-pollinating.
Christopher Columbus was one of the first Europeans to encounter them (in the Caribbean), and called them “peppers” because they, like black and white pepper of the Piper genus known in Europe, have a spicy hot taste unlike other foodstuffs.
Upon their introduction into Europe, chilis were grown as botanical curiosities in the gardens of Spanish and Portuguese monasteries. But the monks experimented with the chilis’ culinary potential and discovered that their pungency offered a substitute for black peppercorns, which at the time were so costly that they were used as legal currency in some countries.
chilies were cultivated around the globe after Columbus. Diego Álvarez Chanca, a physician on Columbus’ second voyage to the West Indies in 1493, brought the first chili peppers to Spain and first wrote about their medicinal effects in 1494. From there, chili peppers spread into their other colony, the Philippines, and from there to India, China, Indonesia, Korea and Japan.
Chili peppers are not only known for their food uses but also for their medicinal properties. Arlene May C. Corpus, a therapeutic dietitian at the Manila Adventist Medical Center, shares the following health benefits:
Analgesic: The capsaicin in chili pepper depletes then blocks the production of “Substance P,” the main chemical messenger of pain from the peripheral sensory nerves to the brain. Substance P breaks down the cartilage cushions in joints that contribute to osteoarthritis. Without Substance P, no pain signal is received.
Digestive aid: Add chili pepper to your dish. Its capsaicin soothes the digestive tract and stimulates the flow of saliva and stomach secretions. Capsaicin also detoxifies the colon, relieving the symptoms of constipation.
Antitussive: chili pepper helps ease cold and flu miseries by thinning the mucus. Mixing chili pepper with water is an effective gargle for sore throat.
Blood circulation: chili pepper regulates and equalizes the flow of blood from heat to feet. It increases heart action without raising blood pressure and pulse rate, decreasing the risk for heart attacks. chili pepper also helps reduce blood clot formation by causing an increase in fibrinolytic (clot-dissolving) activity of the red blood cells. It is also effective in reducing cholesterol levels.
Weight loss: chili pepper has thermogenic qualities causing the body to burn more of the calories consumed in food, particularly those that are high in fat.
In her article, Corpus also mentions some precautions that should be taken when using chili pepper for medicinal purposes. These are:
· While it is safe to eat chili pepper during pregnancy, it should not be taken as a supplement.
· Those who are allergic to kiwi, chestnut, latex, banana, or avocado should avoid chili pepper.
· Capsaicin may make aspirin less effective as pain reliever. It may also increase the risk of bleeding associated with aspirin since it causes irritation to the stomach.
· Capsaicin may increase the risk of bleeding associated with certain blood-thinning medications (such as warfarin) and herbs (ginger, ginseng, and garlic).
· Regular use of chili pepper may cause your body to absorb too much theophylline, a medication used to treat asthma to toxic level.

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