'Bhut Jolokia'—The World's Hottest Known Chile Pepper is a Putative Naturally Occurring Interspecific Hybrid
By P. Bosland, J. Baral. 2007
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In replicated trials at Las Cruces, N.M., the Scoville heat units (SHUs) of 'Bhut Jolokia', a chile pepper from Assam, India, reached one million SHUs. Morphologic characters revealed that 'Bhut Jolokia' is a Capsicum chinense Jacq. cultivar. Molecular analysis with randomly amplified polymorphic DNA markers confirmed the species identification and, interestingly, revealed that there may have been genetic introgression from Capsicum frutescens L. into 'Bhut Jolokia'. Chile peppers (Capsicum L. spp.) are known for causing the sensation of heat or burning when consumed. The heat sensation is incited by the type and the amount of a group of capsaicinoids, the alkaloids found only in chile pepper pods (Zewdie and Bos- land, 2001). The amount of capsaicinoids in a chile pepper pod is dependent on the genetic makeup of the plant and the environment where it is grown (Harvell and Bosland, 1997; Zewdie and Bosland, 2000). The cap- saicinoids have evolved in chile peppers as a defense mechanism against mammalian predators (Tewksbury and Nabhan, 2001); nevertheless, this trait is an important fruit quality attribute and one of the most impor- tant reasons chile peppers are consumed. Chile peppers were first introduced to Europe by Christopher Columbus. Shortly after the voyage of Columbus, Portuguese traders introduced chile peppers along their trade routes in Africa and Asia, including India (Andrews, 1999). By 1542, three vari- eties of chile peppers were recognized to be growing in India (Purseglove, 1968). Today, numerous landraces of chile pepper differing in shape, size, color, and heat level can be found in India as farmers selected chile peppers to fit their needs. The northeastern region of India claims that the chile peppers grown in this region are the hottest in the world. Genetic resources of chile pepper landraces in northeastern India have not been well documented, but a few names mentioned include 'Naga Jolokia', 'Bhut Jolokia', and 'Bih Jolokia'. The Assamese word ''jolokia'' means theCapsicum
Subfields: Plant Science, Sensory Systems
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Citations in the corpus
- Biodiversity of Food Species of the Solanaceae Family: A Preliminary Taxonomic Inventory of Subfamily Solanoideae (2015, background): “The jolokia cultivars are amongst the world’s hottest known chilli peppers, although evidence suggests that these types may be of hybrid origin [67], originating from C.”