‘Bhut Jolokia’—The World's Hottest Known Chile Pepper is a Putative Naturally Occurring Interspecific Hybrid

Abstract

<jats:p>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 <jats:italic>Capsicum chinense</jats:italic> 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 <jats:italic>Capsicum frutescens</jats:italic> L. into ‘Bhut Jolokia’.</jats:p>

Multiple loss-of-function putative aminotransferase alleles contribute to low pungency and capsinoid biosynthesis in Capsicum chinense

“…Although C. chinense is well known for its higher pungency than that of other domesticated species (Bosland and Baral 2007;CantoFlick et al 2008), low-pungent C. chinense accessions, called Aji Dulce, also exist (Votava and Bosland 2004). Our previous study on several low-pungent accessions showed that loss-of-function pamt mutations caused low pungency and capsinoid biosynthesis (Tanaka et al 2010b;Koeda et al 2014).…”

Compatibility of inter-specific crosses between Capsicum chinense Jacq. and Capsicum baccatum L. at different fertilization stages

“…is reported as the hottest species, especially the heat level of cv. Bhut Jolokia is up to more than 1 million Scoville heat units (SHU) (Bosland and Baral, 2007). Hot pepper is mostly grown in tropical countries of the world e.g., India, Indonesia, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Thailand (FAOSTAT, 2012).…”

Naga chilli: A potential source of capsaicinoids with broad-spectrum ethnopharmacological applications

“…Naga chilli was reported as a variety of Capsicum frutescens by Mathur et al (2000). However, Bosland and Baral (2007), on the basis of molecular analysis with randomly amplified polymorphic (RAPD) DNA markers placed Naga chilli in a taxonomic position between Capsicum chinense and Capsicum frutescens with its clustering more closely with the Capsicum chinense group. Sanatombi et al (2010), based on genotypic characterization of seven chilli landraces of Manipur with ten RAPD markers, observed that the extremely pungent genotype 'Umorok' (Naga chilli) formed a divergent cluster from the other Capsicum Table 3 Estimates of area, production and yield of chillies in states of northeast India during 2003.…”

“…However, the extreme level of hotness reported was questioned by the scientific community. Subsequently, studies at the New Mexico State University estimated the capsaicinoid content using high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and reported that Naga chilli had 1,001,304 SHUs, whereas Red Savina recorded 248,556 SHUs (Bosland and Baral, 2007). In September 2006, the Naga chilli was officially recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records as the world's hottest chilli measuring over 1,000,000 SHU (Guinness World Records, 2006).…”