The taste of an Uoo-Morok

N Munal Meitei *

U-Morok sold in adundance at Noney Keithel in Tamenglong in August 2012 :: Pix - Daniel Chabungbam

One of my Manipuri friends who run a small shop in Munirka in south Delhi told me a real story that happened in his shop. A French couple used to come to his shop to buy Uoo-morok every week. The couple had been buying Uoo-morok for the last three years. One day the couple came to his shop and told him that they are going back for home and so they wanted to by all the available Uoo-moroks, green or dried in his shop.

At that time about three kgs of Uoo-morok were left and he sold it to the couple. The couple while about to leave the shop was suddenly angry with my friend. My friend was surprised but unable to know the cause. But in the next moment, the couple told him; why you did not ask us the reason for our buying so much of Manipuri chili from your shop.

My friend felt something and he realized for the mistake. Then my friend asked politely the reason. The couple then patiently replied that this is the best chili for health in the world. If you take it daily, just see the changes you feel after sometime and that too to your family also. The same has been proved with us and thus we are taking it for the last 5/6 years. My friend told me that the couple also mentioned some of the chemical names contained in Uoo-morok but he could not recollect it. From that day he asked me to write something about Uoo-morok and also to find out the truth.

The Uoo-Morok (Tree Chili) also known as bhut jolokia (ghost pepper), naga jolokia and raja mircha is an interspecific hybrid of a chili type cultivated in Manipur and also other north-eastern states of like Assam and Nagaland. Uoo-morok belongs to the Capsicum chinense family.

The pungency or the heat of chili and other pepper's spiciness are measured in terms Scoville Heat Units (SHUs). The scale is named after its creator, American pharmacist Wilbur Scoville. His method, devised in 1912, is known as the Scoville Organoleptic Test.

Uoo-morok was awarded the distinction of "World's Hottest of All Spices" by the Guinness World Records in 2007. This king Chili has 8,55,000-1,463,700 SHU. However, as of 2012, it was superseded by the Trinidad moruga scorpion with 2,000,000-2,200,000 SHU. Again on December 26, 2013, the Guinness World Records voted the 'Carolina Reaper' as the world's hottest pepper, dethroning the Trinidad moruga scorpion.

In 2000, India's Defence Research Laboratory (DRL) reported a rating of Uoo-morok as 855,000 SHUs, and in 2004 a rating again to 1,041,427 SHUs by using HPLC method. In 2005, at New Mexico State University Chile Pepper Institute in Las Cruces, regents Professor Paul Bosland found Uoo-morok grown from seed in southern New Mexico to have a Scoville rating of 1,001,304 SHUs by HPLC. The effect of climate on the pungency of these peppers is dramatic.

The most important key ingredients containing in Uoo-morok are Capsaicin and Dihydrocapsaicin. A 2005 study comparing percentage availability of capsaicin and dihydrocapsaicin in Uoo-morok grown in Tezpur in Assam, showed the heat of the pepper is decreased by over 50% in Gwalior's more arid climate. As per a report from the Manipur University, average measured Scoville rating by HPLC for Uoo-morok was at only 329,100 SHUs.

A ripe Uoo-morok peppers measures 60 to 85 mm long and 25 to 30 mm wide with a red, yellow, orange, or chocolate color. The unselected strain of Uoo-morok is an extremely variable plant, with a wide range in fruit sizes and fruit production per plant, and offers a huge potential for developing much better strains through selection in the future.

Uoo-morok pods are unique among peppers, with their characteristic shape, and very thin skin. However, the red fruit variety has two different fruit types, the rough, dented fruit and the smooth fruit. The rough fruit plants are taller, with more fragile branches, and the smooth fruit plants yields more fruit, and is a more compact plant with sturdier branches. The plant is suited in most of the soil types of Manipur but the best site is moist to dried but half shaded area.

U-Morok sold in adundance at Noney Keithel in Tamenglong in August 2012 :: Pix - Daniel Chabungbam

Uoo-morok is used as a food and a spice. It is also used as a remedy to summer heat. It is used in both fresh and dried forms, to not only "heat up" curries, pickles and chutneys, but also to impart two distinct flavors to them. A kilo of Uoo-morok fetches prices between Rs 300-Rs 400.

After salt, chilies are the next most commonly used food in the world. Internationally, cultures take pleasure in the variety of ways that chili add a dynamic flavor to dishes and recipes. But ever better is that hot chili peppers have great health, dietary and medicinal benefits. This has been known to most of the world for hundreds of years.

The key ingredient in hot peppers, Capsaicin is associated with curing many ailments, and promoting good health. Capsaicin is found concentrated in the inner parts of the chili pepper. Perhaps the greatest "hope" is to find a cure for cancer. Capsaicin is being clinically tested in cancer research that suggests that it can kill prostate cancer cells, lung cancer cells, and inhibits the further growth of leukemia cells.

Capsaicin if fed into the bladder with a catheter desensitizes hyperirritable, aberrant neurons in the bladder for extended periods of time. This activity blocks the premature bladder contractions which cause an unpredictable loss of urine. It is also being studied for use in pain treatment for post-surgical pain. The consumption of Uoo-morok can increase circulation while lowering blood pressure.

It is also used for arthritis pain relief, migraine pain relief, backache relief, muscle pain relief, pain relief from strains, and sprains, nasal spray for sinus and headache relief, digestion problems, to control bleeding, flu treatment, to induce sweating thereby breaking a fever, to treat incontinence, as a herpes creme, an energy booster and more. Uoo-morok promotes endorphin production. Endorphins are a natural substance which when released into the bloodstream can heighten good feelings. Endorphins are natural opiates.

R.B. Srivastava, the director of the Life Sciences Department at the New Delhi headquarters of India's Defence Research and Development Organisation, said bhut jolokia-based aerosol sprays could be used as a "safety device" and "civil variants" of chili grenades that could be used to control and disperse mobs. In rural areas of Assam, the peppers are smeared on fences or incorporated in smoke bombs as a safety precaution to keep wild elephants at a distance.

Uoo-morok can be preserved: -
1. by drying
2. by freezing
3. by making pickles
4. by fermenting in olive oil
5. by roasting and
6. by canning etc.

Our state Manipur is very rich in Uoo-morok production and hence we must keep on enhancing our production. We must use this special chili in our daily diet. The soil of the state is also very suitable for Uoo-morok cultivation. Hence, not only for health but to increase the production and ultimately to solve the unemployment problems of the educated youths of the state, we must start mast cultivation of Uoo-morok in most of the available land.

This plant can also be planted as a pot plant or as a decoration plant at the corner of the house without losing much space. Therefore let us plant abundant Uoo-morok and start mast production and also start taking of this chili right from this moment to make us healthy, wealthy and wise citizens.