Take and use the Scolvile Chart below to take and find out the Heat Index of several different peppers. Rateings from HOTTEST TO MILDEST and in between. Jalopeno pepper, habanero pepper, pepper spray, cayenne pepper, thai pepper and more.
Scoville scale
View Source From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A display of hot peppers and the Scoville scale at a supermarket in Houston, Texas
The Scoville scale is a measurement of the spicy heat (or piquance) of a chili pepper.
The number of Scoville heat units (SHU) indicates the amount of capsaicin present. Capsaicin is a chemical compound that stimulates chemoreceptor nerve endings in the skin, especially the mucous membranes.
The scale is named after its creator, American pharmacist Wilbur Scoville. His method, devised in 1912, is known as the Scoville Organoleptic Test. The modern commonplace method for quantitative analysis uses high-performance liquid chromatography, making it possible to directly measure capsaicinoid content.
Scoville organoleptic test
In Scoville's method, an alcohol extract of the capsaicin oil from a measured amount of dried pepper is added incrementally to a solution of sugar in water until the "heat" is just detectable by a panel of (usually five) tasters; the degree of dilution gives its measure on the Scoville scale. Thus a sweet pepper or a bell pepper, containing no capsaicin at all, has a Scoville rating of zero, meaning no heat detectable. The hottest chilis, such as habaneros and nagas, have a rating of 200,000 or more, indicating that their extract must be diluted over 200,000 times before the capsaicin presence is undetectable. The greatest weakness of the Scoville Organoleptic Test is its imprecision, because it relies on human subjectivity. Tasters taste only one sample per session.
High-performance liquid chromatography
Naga Jolokia (bhut jolokia, naga morich) is rated at over one million Scoville units. It is primarily found in Bangladesh and the Northeast Indian states of Assam, Nagaland and Manipur
The Red Savina pepper, one of the hottest chilis, is rated at 580,000 Scoville units.
Spice heat is usually measured by a method that uses high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). This identifies and measures the concentration of heat-producing chemicals. The measurements are used in a mathematical formula that weights them according to their relative capacity to produce a sensation of heat. This method yields results, not in Scoville units, but in American Spice Trade Association (ASTA) pungency units. A measurement of one part capsaicin per million corresponds to about 15 Scoville units, and the published method says that ASTA pungency units can be multiplied by 15 and reported as Scoville units. This conversion is approximate, and spice experts Donna R. Tainter and Anthony T. Grenis say that there is consensus that it gives results about 20–40% lower than the actual Scoville method would have given.
The chilis with the highest rating on the Scoville scale exceed one million Scoville units, and include specimens of naga jolokia or bhut jolokia and its cultivars, the "Dorset naga" and the "Ghost chili," neither of which has official cultivar status. The Naga Viper currently holds the unofficial title for hottest pepper. It was produced in the UK by crossing the three hottest peppers known to the world, including the Bhut jolokia. Researchers at Warwick University tested the Naga Viper and found that it measures 1,359,000 on the Scoville scale. It should be noted that a chilli trial carried out by a team from the BBC's Gardeners' World programme put the heat value of Dorset Naga at a staggering 1.6 million SHU. Those levels were tested by Warwick HRI. However, this is not the average Scoville Heat Unit level of the pepper, nor was this submitted to any world record holder. Numerical results for any specimen vary depending on its cultivation conditions and the uncertainty of the laboratory methods used to assess the capsaicinoid content. The current world record holder, according to the Guinness Book of Records, is the Naga Viper Chilli grown by accident in Cark, Cumbria by Gerald Fowler. It has a rating of 1.38 million on the Scoville Scale.
Pungency values for any pepper are variable, due to expected variation within a species—easily by a factor of 10 or more—depending on seed lineage, climate (humidity is a big factor for the Bhut Jolokia; the Dorset Naga and the original Naga have quite different ratings), and even soil (this is especially true of habaneros). The inaccuracies described in the measurement methods above also contribute to the imprecision of these values. When interpreting Scoville ratings, this should be kept in mind.
The Scoville scale may be extrapolated to express the pungency of substances that are even hotter than pure capsaicin. One such substance is resiniferatoxin, an alkaloid present in the sap of some species of euphorbia plants (spurges), with a Scoville scale rating of 16 billion.
Scoville scale
View Source From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A display of hot peppers and the Scoville scale at a supermarket in Houston, Texas
The Scoville scale is a measurement of the spicy heat (or piquance) of a chili pepper.
The number of Scoville heat units (SHU) indicates the amount of capsaicin present. Capsaicin is a chemical compound that stimulates chemoreceptor nerve endings in the skin, especially the mucous membranes.
The scale is named after its creator, American pharmacist Wilbur Scoville. His method, devised in 1912, is known as the Scoville Organoleptic Test. The modern commonplace method for quantitative analysis uses high-performance liquid chromatography, making it possible to directly measure capsaicinoid content.
Scoville organoleptic test
In Scoville's method, an alcohol extract of the capsaicin oil from a measured amount of dried pepper is added incrementally to a solution of sugar in water until the "heat" is just detectable by a panel of (usually five) tasters; the degree of dilution gives its measure on the Scoville scale. Thus a sweet pepper or a bell pepper, containing no capsaicin at all, has a Scoville rating of zero, meaning no heat detectable. The hottest chilis, such as habaneros and nagas, have a rating of 200,000 or more, indicating that their extract must be diluted over 200,000 times before the capsaicin presence is undetectable. The greatest weakness of the Scoville Organoleptic Test is its imprecision, because it relies on human subjectivity. Tasters taste only one sample per session.
High-performance liquid chromatography
Naga Jolokia (bhut jolokia, naga morich) is rated at over one million Scoville units. It is primarily found in Bangladesh and the Northeast Indian states of Assam, Nagaland and Manipur
The Red Savina pepper, one of the hottest chilis, is rated at 580,000 Scoville units.
Spice heat is usually measured by a method that uses high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). This identifies and measures the concentration of heat-producing chemicals. The measurements are used in a mathematical formula that weights them according to their relative capacity to produce a sensation of heat. This method yields results, not in Scoville units, but in American Spice Trade Association (ASTA) pungency units. A measurement of one part capsaicin per million corresponds to about 15 Scoville units, and the published method says that ASTA pungency units can be multiplied by 15 and reported as Scoville units. This conversion is approximate, and spice experts Donna R. Tainter and Anthony T. Grenis say that there is consensus that it gives results about 20–40% lower than the actual Scoville method would have given.
The chilis with the highest rating on the Scoville scale exceed one million Scoville units, and include specimens of naga jolokia or bhut jolokia and its cultivars, the "Dorset naga" and the "Ghost chili," neither of which has official cultivar status. The Naga Viper currently holds the unofficial title for hottest pepper. It was produced in the UK by crossing the three hottest peppers known to the world, including the Bhut jolokia. Researchers at Warwick University tested the Naga Viper and found that it measures 1,359,000 on the Scoville scale. It should be noted that a chilli trial carried out by a team from the BBC's Gardeners' World programme put the heat value of Dorset Naga at a staggering 1.6 million SHU. Those levels were tested by Warwick HRI. However, this is not the average Scoville Heat Unit level of the pepper, nor was this submitted to any world record holder. Numerical results for any specimen vary depending on its cultivation conditions and the uncertainty of the laboratory methods used to assess the capsaicinoid content. The current world record holder, according to the Guinness Book of Records, is the Naga Viper Chilli grown by accident in Cark, Cumbria by Gerald Fowler. It has a rating of 1.38 million on the Scoville Scale.
Pungency values for any pepper are variable, due to expected variation within a species—easily by a factor of 10 or more—depending on seed lineage, climate (humidity is a big factor for the Bhut Jolokia; the Dorset Naga and the original Naga have quite different ratings), and even soil (this is especially true of habaneros). The inaccuracies described in the measurement methods above also contribute to the imprecision of these values. When interpreting Scoville ratings, this should be kept in mind.
The Scoville scale may be extrapolated to express the pungency of substances that are even hotter than pure capsaicin. One such substance is resiniferatoxin, an alkaloid present in the sap of some species of euphorbia plants (spurges), with a Scoville scale rating of 16 billion.