Chillies are the fruits of plants belonging to the genus Capsicum which originated from south-central region of South America. Columbus discovered it on his voyage to America and introduced it to Europe from where it subsequently spread to different parts of the world.

The popularity of the plant was such that in a short span of time it had become an indispensable ingredient of different cuisines of the world. In India, the European traders were the first to introduce it and today several cultivars are found in different parts of the country.

Chillies are used variously for different purposes because of their nutritional value, flavour, aroma, texture, hotness and colour. Chilli powders and oleoresin extracts of chilli are currently used in a wide assortment of foods, drugs, and cosmetics.

Chillies are also cultivated ornamentally especially for their brightly glossy fruits with a wide range of colours, shape and sizes. Besides the above-mentioned uses, chillies also have medicinal uses.

The medicinal value of chilli is well recognized today and is used for lowering blood pressure, to prevent cold hands and feet, for restoring stamina and vigour. Recently, a synergistic mixture of green tea with red chilli powder was found to be hundred times more effective in killing cancer cells than either by green tea or chilli powder alone.

Chillies also act as a safe analgesic and today chillies form the most active ingredient of most painkiller formulations used for treating many painful conditions such as post-herpetic neuralgia, diabetic neuropathy, osteoarthritis and mouth sores developing after chemotherapy or radiation. Thus, besides being an important spice, chilli also serves as a source of potential pharmaceutical drugs.

Another recent innovation of chilli use is the use of sprays containing chilli extracts as a non-lethal weapon. Such sprays are considered a friendly self-defence tool for women and are gaining popularity in different countries of the world.

Similarly, water canons containing chilli extracts are also becoming a favourite tool for modern day policing and are used for controlling the behaviour of miscreants and mob fury during riots.

There has always been a myth blaming spicy food containing hot chillies for causing haemorrhoids or pile and for causing ulcer in the stomach. However, recent studies with human patients has broken the myth and concluded that there is no scientific evidence that a spicy meal based on chillies may worsen symptoms of pile and that chilli use has no role in causing stomach ulcer.

On the other hand, chilli use was shown to have a protective effect against stomach ulcer and aspirin-induced injury of stomach lining by stimulating mucous secretion, which forms a protective covering of the stomach lining.

Most of the beneficial effects of chilli on human body are due to capsaicin, the main compound responsible for producing hotness in chillies. The amount of capsaicin present in a chilli is proportional to the hotness or heat level (expressed in Scoville Heat Units) of the chilli and chillies with high capsaicin content have higher corresponding Scoville Heat Units (SHU).

The capsaicin content and the corresponding SHU in a chilli sample are accurately measured by using high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and this method is used to identify the hot chilli cultivars which serve as potent source of capsaicin. In the process, a race was initiated to claim the title “Hottest Chilli of the World”.

The first winner of the title was the 'Red Savina Habanero', a hybrid chilli developed in California. The hotness of this chilli was recorded at 5,77,000 SHU and was listed in the Guinness World Records as the World's Hottest Chilli.

However, further attempts to duplicate the results produced negative results and the average heat level of this chilli were recorded in the range of 1,50,000–3,00,000 SHU. This may be due to the fact that capsaicin content in a chilli is affected by several factors like stage of maturity of the fruit, soil water content and other environmental factors.

The part of the fruit used in analysis also greatly affects the results since capsaicin is mostly produced in the placenta tissue (region bearing seeds) in a chilli fruit and it is present in minimum amount in the seeds and the fruit wall.

The second claim for the title came in September, 2000 from a laboratory in Tezpur, Assam, reporting that a chilli named 'Nagahari' or 'Naga jolokia' is the new record holder. The reported chilli had a heat level of 8,55,000 SHU which was far much greater than the heat level of the 'Red Savina Habanero' and this report had attracted the attention of the international community leading to a search for the chilli in Assam.

Since the report provided no details about the chilli plant and the part of the fruit used for the analysis, the international community was becoming skeptical about the claim and attempts to establish the authenticity of the claim were in vain.

However, when the people of Manipur heard about the claim, there was widespread speculation about the identity of the chilli and they could not help suspecting it to be the well-known indigenous fiery chilli, 'U morok'.

Therefore, keeping in mind the sentiments associated with the issue, we measured the heat levels of different samples of 'U morok' taking whole fruits including the seeds and fruit walls following the generally accepted procedure.

The average heat level of 'U morok' samples were found to be in the range of 2,00,000-3,50,000 SHU and the results could be expected at a much higher level if only the placenta tissues were analysed. Moreover, since several other factors affect the capsaicin content in a chilli sample it was difficult to tape the highest level.

In the meantime, another report popped up in the media in the summer of 2005 about a new champion, 'Dorset Naga' with a whopping 9,23,000 SHU. This time, full details were available on the internet about the morphology and the origin of the chilli.

The line-up for World's Hottest Chilli