Indian Military Hopes to Weaponize the Searing "Ghost Pepper"

coondoggie writes "The military in India is looking to weaponize the world's hottest chili, the bhut jolokia or 'ghost pepper,' according to a number of news outlets. The Bhut Jolokia chili pepper from Assam, India is no ordinary pepper. In tests first conducted by the New Mexico State University in 2008 and subsequently confirmed by Guinness World records and others, the Bhut Jolokia reached over one million Scoville heat units, while the next hottest, the Red Savina Habenero, clocks in at a mere 577,000. Scoville units are a universally accepted measure of chili hotness."

Comments

Four Horsemen burger of San Antonio, TX

[logicassasin]

www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kO7MlHgJLA

Hopefully that's the right link.

There's a burger in TX that uses this pepper called the Four Horsemen Burger. As of the taping of this episode of Man Vs Food, only three people had managed to finish one in 25 minutes, with an additional 5 minutes of waiting without liquids. The host of the show became number 4, though it looked like he wasn't going to get past even the first bite.

Isn't that illegal (internationally) if a weapon causes this much pain and suffering?

Re:Not the Next Hottest

[Thyamine]

Actually, the Scoville scale measures the actual amount of capsaicin in a pepper. The test that Scoville himself invented was subjective. But because of the work he did on it, they named the quantitative units after him.

Re:Tastes great

[DMUTPeregrine]

It's not actually caustic. Capsicum just lowers your threshold of heat, so the nerves feel like they are in a hot area. Thus, it "burns" you. Blistering is a reaction to this. If you can use it as a caustic agent it probably has a lot of vinegar added.

Technically correct, but...

[Rene S. Hollan]

Modern expressions of pungency in terms of Scoville units set pure capsaicin at either 15,000,000 or 16,000,000, and use HPLC to establish concentration of same (and related compounds). A Scoville rating is then set based on the concentration(s) measured.

So, knowing the reference standard, the measurements are actually quite objective.

Nobody, as far as I know, uses taste testers anymore.

Re:Technically correct, but...

[reverseengineer]

A few things are going on chemically with hot peppers. Capsaicin is an alkaloid, which is just a term for a nitrogen-containing naturally produced base (caffeine would be another example; something like sodium hydroxide would be a non-alkaloid base). Capsaicin is not a particularly strong base, and is not very water soluble, behaving more like a wax. This is why pure water is not regarded as particularly effective in relieving the pain sensation produced by capsaicin. Peppers as a whole are generally very mildly acidic, with notable quanitities of weak acids like ascorbic acid (vitamin C). However, they are generally not acidic enough to resist spoilage, so preserved forms of chiles usually involve vinegar, which might be the acidity you taste in a hot sauce or canned chile.

Re:Tastes great

[Lumpy]

The guy who sold it to us told us a few interesting things about it: (1) It instantly blisters skin on contact (2) it's very expensive to buy over the internet because it has to be shipped as a hazardous materiel. (3) Not only is it good for eating, but it works great as a caustic agent for degreasing driveways, engines, etc.

the guy who sold it was ragingly full of shit.

I have let it sit on my skin for 20 minutes to prove it's a fake claim... Won $100.00 in the office after that and eating a taco with it on it. (they dont understand that sour cream really kills it's burn)

It's not acid, it dont burn the skin and is worthless for degreasing driveways.