Introduction

Chillies, sometimes mild, sometimes medium, sometimes hot. At times so hot they make your eyes stream, your face go red and your lips swell up. It doesn't get any better than the latter! The heat is predominantly provided by capsinoids, which are amides of vanillylamine, with capsaicin being the main one.

Capsaicin exhibits hypermetabolism as well as sweating caused by the promotion of the production of adrenaline. Specifically, the capsaicin binds to pain receptors in the mouth called TRPV1. These pain receptors are there to detect heat but when the capsaicin is there the receptors are tricked into firing. Hence the sensation of heat. The brain does its typical pain response and releases dopamine and endorphins which gives a slight euphoric feeling. What's not to like? However, as these molecules are hydrophobic you can't just have a drink of water to wash them away. Your best bet is milk or yoghurt. They are soluble in alcohol, however, I find eating spicy food whilst drinking alcohol makes the dishes taste hotter.

Scoville Scale

In 1912 a pharmacist called Wilbur Scoville decided that he wanted catagorise chillies in terms of how hot they were. It was a slightly subjective test where one would dilute the chilli with water until it was no longer hot. Not massively analytical but it did the job. I intend to take a more analytical approach and use convergence chromatography with accurate-mass mass spectrometry to rank my chillies, chilli sauces and chilli powders. No particular reason, I just fancy doing it...