1.
Species
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In biology, a species is the basic unit of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is defined as the largest group of organisms in which two individuals can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. While this definition is often adequate, looked at more closely it is problematic, for example, with hybridisation, in a species complex of hundreds of similar microspecies, or in a ring species, the boundaries between closely related species become unclear. Other ways of defining species include similarity of DNA, morphology, all species are given a two-part name, a binomial. The first part of a binomial is the genus to which the species belongs, the second part is called the specific name or the specific epithet. For example, Boa constrictor is one of four species of the Boa genus, Species were seen from the time of Aristotle until the 18th century as fixed kinds that could be arranged in a hierarchy, the great chain of being. In the 19th century, biologists grasped that species could evolve given sufficient time, Charles Darwins 1859 book The Origin of Species explained how species could arise by natural selection. Genes can sometimes be exchanged between species by horizontal transfer, and species may become extinct for a variety of reasons. In his biology, Aristotle used the term γένος to mean a kind, such as a bird or fish, a kind was distinguished by its attributes, for instance, a bird has feathers, a beak, wings, a hard-shelled egg, and warm blood. A form was distinguished by being shared by all its members, Aristotle believed all kinds and forms to be distinct and unchanging. His approach remained influential until the Renaissance, when observers in the Early Modern period began to develop systems of organization for living things, they placed each kind of animal or plant into a context. Many of these early delineation schemes would now be considered whimsical, animals likewise that differ specifically preserve their distinct species permanently, one species never springs from the seed of another nor vice versa. In the 18th century, the Swedish scientist Carl Linnaeus classified organisms according to shared physical characteristics and he established the idea of a taxonomic hierarchy of classification based upon observable characteristics and intended to reflect natural relationships. At the time, however, it was widely believed that there was no organic connection between species, no matter how similar they appeared. However, whether or not it was supposed to be fixed, by the 19th century, naturalists understood that species could change form over time, and that the history of the planet provided enough time for major changes. Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, in his 1809 Zoological Philosophy, described the transmutation of species, proposing that a species could change over time, in 1859, Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace provided a compelling account of evolution and the formation of new species. Darwin argued that it was populations that evolved, not individuals and this required a new definition of species. Darwin concluded that species are what appear to be, ideas
2.
Capsicum annuum
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Capsicum annuum is a species of the plant genus Capsicum native to southern North America and northern South America. This species is the most common and extensively cultivated of the five domesticated capsicums, the species encompasses a wide variety of shapes and sizes of peppers, both mild and hot, ranging from bell peppers to chili peppers. Cultivars are descended from the wild American bird pepper still found in regions of the Americas. Moreover, crosses between C. annuum and C. frutescens arent likely because seeds obtained from polliations between those two species will not germinate. Although the species name annuum means “annual”, the plant is not an annual and in the absence of winter frosts can survive several seasons, the single flowers are an off-white color while the stem is densely branched and up to 60 centimetres tall. The fruit are berries that may be green, yellow or red when ripe, while the species can tolerate most climates, C. annuum is especially productive in warm and dry climates. The species is a source of popular sweet peppers and hot chilis with numerous varieties cultivated all around the world, common naming in English falls generally in line with the flavor and size of the variant. Larger, sweeter variants are called sweet peppers in Great Britain, the smaller, hotter varieties are called chillis, chilies, chile, or chili peppers. Capsinoid chemicals provide the distinctive tastes in C. annuum variants, in particular, capsaicin creates a burning sensation, which in extreme cases can last for several hours after ingestion. A measurement called the Scoville scale has been created to describe the hotness of peppers, hot peppers are used in medicine as well as food in Africa and other places around the world. Ornamental varieties tend to have unusually colored fruit and foliage with colors such as black, all are edible, and most are hot. List of Capsicum cultivars Paprika Chili pepper Malgorzata, Materska, flavone C-glycosides from Capsicum annuum L. relationships between antioxidant activity and lipophilicity. Arimboor, Ranjith, Natarajan, Ramesh Babu, Menon, K. Ramakrishna, Chandrasekhar, red pepper carotenoids as a source of natural food colors, analysis and stability-a review. Journal of Food Science and Technology
3.
Scoville scale
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Capsaicin is one of many related chemicals, collectively called capsaicinoids. The scale is named after its creator, American pharmacist Wilbur Scoville and his method, devised in 1912, is known as the Scoville Organoleptic Test. In Scovilles method, a weight of dried pepper is dissolved in alcohol to extract the heat components. Decreasing concentrations of the extracted capsinoids are given to a panel of five trained tasters, the heat level is based on this dilution, rated in multiples of 100 SHU. A weakness of the Scoville Organoleptic Test is its imprecision due to human subjectivity, depending on the palate and their number of mouth heat receptors. Another weakness is sensory fatigue, the palate is quickly desensitised to capsaicins after tasting a few samples within a time period. Since Scoville ratings are defined per unit of dry mass, comparison of ratings between products having different water content can be misleading, for example, typical fresh chili peppers have a water content around 90 percent, whereas Tabasco sauce has a water content of 95 percent. For law-enforcement-grade pepper spray, values from 500,000 up to 1 million SHU have been mentioned, but the strength of the spray depends on the dilution. The Carolina Reaper is currently the highest rated pepper in the world, numerical results for any specimen vary depending on its cultivation conditions and the uncertainty of the laboratory methods used to assess the capsaicinoid content. Pungency values for any pepper are variable, owing to expected variation within a species—easily by a factor of 10 or more—depending on seed lineage, climate, the inaccuracies described in the measurement methods above also contribute to the imprecision of these values. Since at least the 1980s, spice heat has been precisely measured by a method that uses high-performance liquid chromatography. This identifies and measures the concentration of heat-producing chemicals, the measurements are used in a mathematical formula that weights them according to their relative capacity to produce a sensation of heat. This method yields results, not in Scoville units, but in American Spice Trade Association pungency units. A measurement of one part capsaicin per million corresponds to about 16 Scoville units, Scoville units are a measure for capsaicin content per unit of dry mass. Wilbur Scoville profile on NNDB Scoville Scale/Scoville Heat Units Explanation at Tabasco Website
4.
Mexico
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Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a federal republic in the southern half of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States, to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean, to the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea, and to the east by the Gulf of Mexico. Covering almost two million square kilometers, Mexico is the sixth largest country in the Americas by total area, Mexico is a federation comprising 31 states and a federal district that is also its capital and most populous city. Other metropolises include Guadalajara, Monterrey, Puebla, Toluca, Tijuana, pre-Columbian Mexico was home to many advanced Mesoamerican civilizations, such as the Olmec, Toltec, Teotihuacan, Zapotec, Maya and Aztec before first contact with Europeans. In 1521, the Spanish Empire conquered and colonized the territory from its base in Mexico-Tenochtitlan, Three centuries later, this territory became Mexico following recognition in 1821 after the colonys Mexican War of Independence. The tumultuous post-independence period was characterized by instability and many political changes. The Mexican–American War led to the cession of the extensive northern borderlands, one-third of its territory. The Pastry War, the Franco-Mexican War, a civil war, the dictatorship was overthrown in the Mexican Revolution of 1910, which culminated with the promulgation of the 1917 Constitution and the emergence of the countrys current political system. Mexico has the fifteenth largest nominal GDP and the eleventh largest by purchasing power parity, the Mexican economy is strongly linked to those of its North American Free Trade Agreement partners, especially the United States. Mexico was the first Latin American member of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and it is classified as an upper-middle income country by the World Bank and a newly industrialized country by several analysts. By 2050, Mexico could become the fifth or seventh largest economy. The country is considered both a power and middle power, and is often identified as an emerging global power. Due to its culture and history, Mexico ranks first in the Americas. Mexico is a country, ranking fourth in the world by biodiversity. In 2015 it was the 9th most visited country in the world, Mexico is a member of the United Nations, the World Trade Organization, the G8+5, the G20, the Uniting for Consensus and the Pacific Alliance. Mēxihco is the Nahuatl term for the heartland of the Aztec Empire, namely, the Valley of Mexico, and its people, the Mexica and this became the future State of Mexico as a division of New Spain prior to independence. It is generally considered to be a toponym for the valley became the primary ethnonym for the Aztec Triple Alliance as a result. After New Spain won independence from Spain, representatives decided to name the new country after its capital and this was founded in 1524 on top of the ancient Mexica capital of Mexico-Tenochtitlan
5.
Central America
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Central America is the southernmost, isthmian portion of the North American continent, which connects with South America on the southeast. Central America is bordered by Mexico to the north, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the east, Central America consists of seven countries, Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama. The combined population of Central America is between 41,739,000 and 42,688,190, Central America is a part of the Mesoamerican biodiversity hotspot, which extends from northern Guatemala through to central Panama. Due to the presence of several active faults and the Central America Volcanic Arc. Volcanic eruptions and earthquakes occur frequently, these disasters have resulted in the loss of many lives. In the Pre-Columbian era, Central America was inhabited by the peoples of Mesoamerica to the north and west. Soon after Christopher Columbuss voyages to the Americas, the Spanish began to colonize the Americas, the seven states finally became independent autonomous states, beginning with Nicaragua, Honduras, Costa Rica, and Guatemala, followed by El Salvador, then Panama, and finally Belize. Middle America is usually thought to comprise Mexico to the north of the 7 states of Central America as well as Colombia, usually the whole of the Caribbean to the north-east and sometimes the Guyanas are also included. According to one source, the term Central America was used as a synonym for Middle America as recently as 1962, in Brazil, Central America comprises all countries between Mexico and Colombia, including those in the Caribbean. Mexico, in whole or in part, is included by British people. For the people living in the 5 countries formerly part of the Federal Republic of Central America there is a distinction between the Spanish language terms América Central and Centroamérica, in the Pre-Columbian era, the northern areas of Central America were inhabited by the indigenous peoples of Mesoamerica. Most notable among these were the Mayans, who had built numerous cities throughout the region, and the Aztecs, following Christopher Columbuss voyages to the Americas, the Spanish sent many expeditions to the region, and they began their conquest of Maya territory in 1523. Soon after the conquest of the Aztec Empire, Spanish conquistador Pedro de Alvarado commenced the conquest of northern Central America for the Spanish Empire. Beginning with his arrival in Soconusco in 1523, Alvarados forces systematically conquered and subjugated most of the major Maya kingdoms, including the Kiche, Tzutujil, Pipil, and the Kaqchikel. By 1528, the conquest of Guatemala was nearly complete, with only the Petén Basin remaining outside the Spanish sphere of influence, the last independent Maya kingdoms – the Kowoj and the Itza people – were finally defeated in 1697, as part of the Spanish conquest of Petén. In 1538, Spain established the Real Audiencia of Panama, which had jurisdiction over all land from the Strait of Magellan to the Gulf of Fonseca. This entity was dissolved in 1543, and most of the territory within Central America then fell under the jurisdiction of the Audiencia Real de Guatemala. This area included the current territories of Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and the Mexican state of Chiapas, the president of the Audiencia, which had its seat in Antigua Guatemala, was the governor of the entire area
6.
South America
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South America is a continent located in the western hemisphere, mostly in the southern hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the northern hemisphere. It may also be considered a subcontinent of the Americas, which is the used in nations that speak Romance languages. The reference to South America instead of other regions has increased in the last decades due to changing geopolitical dynamics. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east by the Atlantic Ocean, North America and it includes twelve sovereign states, a part of France, and a non-sovereign area. In addition to this, the ABC islands of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Trinidad and Tobago, South America has an area of 17,840,000 square kilometers. Its population as of 2005 has been estimated at more than 371,090,000, South America ranks fourth in area and fifth in population. Brazil is by far the most populous South American country, with more than half of the population, followed by Colombia, Argentina, Venezuela. In recent decades Brazil has also concentrated half of the regions GDP and has become a first regional power, most of the population lives near the continents western or eastern coasts while the interior and the far south are sparsely populated. Most of the continent lies in the tropics, the continents cultural and ethnic outlook has its origin with the interaction of indigenous peoples with European conquerors and immigrants and, more locally, with African slaves. Given a long history of colonialism, the majority of South Americans speak Portuguese or Spanish. South America occupies the portion of the Americas. The continent is delimited on the northwest by the Darién watershed along the Colombia–Panama border. Almost all of mainland South America sits on the South American Plate, South Americas major mineral resources are gold, silver, copper, iron ore, tin, and petroleum. These resources found in South America have brought high income to its countries especially in times of war or of rapid growth by industrialized countries elsewhere. However, the concentration in producing one major export commodity often has hindered the development of diversified economies and this is leading to efforts to diversify production to drive away from staying as economies dedicated to one major export. South America is one of the most biodiverse continents on earth, South America is home to many interesting and unique species of animals including the llama, anaconda, piranha, jaguar, vicuña, and tapir. The Amazon rainforests possess high biodiversity, containing a proportion of the Earths species. Brazil is the largest country in South America, encompassing around half of the land area
7.
Szeged
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Szeged is the third largest city of Hungary, the largest city and regional centre of the Southern Great Plain and the county seat of Csongrád county. The University of Szeged is one of the most distinguished universities in Hungary, the famous Szeged Open Air Festival is one of the main attractions, held every summer and celebrated as the Day of the City on May 21. The name Szeged might come from an old Hungarian word for corner, others say it derives from the Hungarian word sziget which means island. Others still contend that szeg means dark blond – a reference to the color of the water where the rivers Tisza, Szeged and its area have been inhabited since ancient times. Ptolemy mentions the oldest known name of the city, Partiscum and it is possible that Attila, king of the Huns had his seat somewhere in this area. The name Szeged was first mentioned in 1183, in a document of King Béla III, today only one corner of the castle still remains standing. During the Mongol invasion the town was destroyed and its inhabitants fled to the nearby swamps, King Sigismund of Luxembourg had a wall built around the town. Szeged was raised to free royal town status in 1498, Szeged was first pillaged by the Turkish army on 28 September 1526, but was occupied only in 1543, and became an administrative centre of the Ottomans. The town was a sanjak centre first in Budin Eyaleti, after in Eğri Eyaleti, the town was freed from Turkish rule on 23 October 1686, and regained the free royal town status in 1715. In 1719, Szeged received its coat of arms from Charles III, during the next several years, Szeged grew and prospered. Piarist monks arrived in Szeged in 1719 and opened a new school in 1721. Szeged also held lectures and theatrical plays. These years brought not only prosperity but also enlightenment, between 1728 and 1744 witch trials were frequent in the town, with the Szeged witch trials of 1728-29 perhaps being the largest. In 1720, the population of the city totalled 193 households, Szeged is known as the home of paprika, a spice made from dried, powdered capsicum fruits. Paprika arrived in Hungary in the half of the 16th century as an ornamental plant. About 100 years later the plant was cultivated as an herb, Szeged is also famous for their szekelygulyas, a goulash made with pork, sauerkraut and sour cream. And also famous for their halászlé, fish made of carp. The citizens of Szeged played an important part in the Hungarian Revolution of 1848, lajos Kossuth delivered his famous speech here
8.
Hungary
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Hungary is a unitary parliamentary republic in Central Europe. With about 10 million inhabitants, Hungary is a member state of the European Union. The official language is Hungarian, which is the most widely spoken language in Europe. Hungarys capital and largest metropolis is Budapest, a significant economic hub, major urban areas include Debrecen, Szeged, Miskolc, Pécs and Győr. His great-grandson Stephen I ascended to the throne in 1000, converting the country to a Christian kingdom, by the 12th century, Hungary became a middle power within the Western world, reaching a golden age by the 15th century. Hungarys current borders were established in 1920 by the Treaty of Trianon after World War I, when the country lost 71% of its territory, 58% of its population, following the interwar period, Hungary joined the Axis Powers in World War II, suffering significant damage and casualties. Hungary became a state of the Soviet Union, which contributed to the establishment of a four-decade-long communist dictatorship. On 23 October 1989, Hungary became again a democratic parliamentary republic, in the 21st century, Hungary is a middle power and has the worlds 57th largest economy by nominal GDP, as well as the 58th largest by PPP, out of 188 countries measured by the IMF. As a substantial actor in several industrial and technological sectors, it is both the worlds 36th largest exporter and importer of goods, Hungary is a high-income economy with a very high standard of living. It keeps up a security and universal health care system. Hungary joined the European Union in 2004 and part of the Schengen Area since 2007, Hungary is a member of the United Nations, NATO, WTO, World Bank, the AIIB, the Council of Europe and Visegrád Group. Well known for its cultural history, Hungary has been contributed significantly to arts, music, literature, sports and science. Hungary is the 11th most popular country as a tourist destination in Europe and it is home to the largest thermal water cave system, the second largest thermal lake in the world, the largest lake in Central Europe, and the largest natural grasslands in Europe. The H in the name of Hungary is most likely due to historical associations with the Huns. The rest of the word comes from the Latinized form of Medieval Greek Oungroi, according to an explanation the Greek name was borrowed from Proto-Slavic Ǫgǔri, in turn borrowed from Oghur-Turkic Onogur. Onogur was the name for the tribes who later joined the Bulgar tribal confederacy that ruled the eastern parts of Hungary after the Avars. The Hungarians likely belonged to the Onogur tribal alliance and it is possible they became its ethnic majority. The Hungarian endonym is Magyarország, composed of magyar and ország, the word magyar is taken from the name of one of the seven major semi-nomadic Hungarian tribes, magyeri
9.
Christopher Columbus
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Christopher Columbus was an Italian explorer, navigator, colonizer, and citizen of the Republic of Genoa. Under the auspices of the Catholic Monarchs of Spain, he completed four voyages across the Atlantic Ocean and those voyages and his efforts to establish permanent settlements on the island of Hispaniola initiated the European colonization of the New World. Western imperialism and economic competition were emerging among European kingdoms through the establishment of routes and colonies. During his first voyage in 1492, he reached the New World instead of arriving at Japan as he had intended, landing on an island in the Bahamas archipelago that he named San Salvador. Over the course of three voyages, he visited the Greater and Lesser Antilles, as well as the Caribbean coast of Venezuela and Central America. These voyages had, therefore, an impact in the historical development of the modern Western world. He spearheaded the transatlantic trade and has been accused by several historians of initiating the genocide of the Hispaniola natives. Columbus himself saw his accomplishments primarily in the light of spreading the Christian religion, Columbus never admitted that he had reached a continent previously unknown to Europeans, rather than the East Indies for which he had set course. He called the inhabitants of the lands that he visited indios, the name Christopher Columbus is the Anglicisation of the Latin Christophorus Columbus. His name in Italian is Cristoforo Colombo and, in Spanish and he was born before 31 October 1451 in the territory of the Republic of Genoa, though the exact location remains disputed. His father was Domenico Colombo, a wool weaver who worked both in Genoa and Savona and who also owned a cheese stand at which young Christopher worked as a helper. Bartolomeo, Giovanni Pellegrino, and Giacomo were his brothers, Bartolomeo worked in a cartography workshop in Lisbon for at least part of his adulthood. He also had a sister named Bianchinetta, Columbus never wrote in his native language, which is presumed to have been a Genoese variety of Ligurian. In one of his writings, he says he went to sea at the age of 10, in 1470, the Columbus family moved to Savona, where Domenico took over a tavern. In the same year, Christopher was on a Genoese ship hired in the service of René of Anjou to support his attempt to conquer the Kingdom of Naples. Some modern historians have argued that he was not from Genoa but, instead and these competing hypotheses have generally been discounted by mainstream scholars. In 1473, Columbus began his apprenticeship as business agent for the important Centurione, Di Negro, later, he allegedly made a trip to Chios, an Aegean island then ruled by Genoa. In May 1476, he took part in a convoy sent by Genoa to carry valuable cargo to northern Europe
10.
Black pepper
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Black pepper is a flowering vine in the family Piperaceae, cultivated for its fruit, which is usually dried and used as a spice and seasoning. When dried, the fruit is known as a peppercorn, when fresh and fully mature, it is approximately 5 millimetres in diameter, dark red, and, like all drupes, contains a single seed. Peppercorns, and the ground pepper derived from them, may be described simply as pepper, or more precisely as black pepper, green pepper, black pepper is native to south India and is extensively cultivated there and elsewhere in tropical regions. Currently, Vietnam is the worlds largest producer and exporter of pepper, dried ground pepper has been used since antiquity for both its flavour and as a traditional medicine. Black pepper is the worlds most traded spice and it is one of the most common spices added to cuisines around the world. The spiciness of black pepper is due to the chemical piperine, black pepper is ubiquitous in the modern world as a seasoning and is often paired with salt. The word pepper has its roots in the Tamil word for long pepper, todays pepper derives from the Old English pipor. and from Latin which was the source of Romanian piper, Italian pepe, Dutch peper, German Pfeffer, French poivre, and other similar forms. In the 16th century, pepper started referring to the unrelated New World chili pepper as well, Pepper was used in a figurative sense to mean spirit or energy at least as far back as the 1840s, in the early 20th century, this was shortened to pep. Black pepper is produced from the still-green, unripe drupes of the pepper plant. The drupes are cooked briefly in hot water, both to them and to prepare them for drying, the heat ruptures cell walls in the pepper. The drupes are dried in the sun or by machine for several days, during which the pepper around the seed shrinks and darkens into a thin, once dried, the spice is called black peppercorn. On some estates, the berries are separated from the stem by hand, once the peppercorns are dried, pepper spirit and oil can be extracted from the berries by crushing them. Pepper spirit is used in medicinal and beauty products. Pepper oil is used as an ayurvedic massage oil and used in certain beauty. White pepper consists solely of the seed of the pepper plant and this is usually accomplished by a process known as retting, where fully ripe red pepper berries are soaked in water for about a week, during which the flesh of the pepper softens and decomposes. Rubbing then removes what remains of the fruit, and the seed is dried. Sometimes alternative processes are used for removing the outer pepper from the seed, ground white pepper is used in Chinese and Thai cuisine, but also in salads, cream sauces, light-coloured sauces, and mashed potatoes. White pepper has a different flavour from black pepper, it lacks certain compounds present in the layer of the drupe
11.
Capsicum
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Capsicum is a genus of flowering plants in the nightshade family Solanaceae. Its species are native to the Americas, where they have cultivated for thousands of years. Following the Columbian Exchange, it has become cultivated worldwide, in addition to use as spices and food vegetables, Capsicum species have also been used as medicines and lachrymatory agents. The generic name may come from Latin capsa box, presumably alluding to the pods or the Greek word κάπτω kapto to gulp. The name pepper comes from the similarity of the flavor to black pepper, Piper nigrum, although there is no botanical relationship with it or with Sichuan pepper. The original term, chilli came from the Nahuatl word chīlli, denoting a larger Capsicum variety cultivated at least since 3000 BC, as evidenced by remains found in pottery from Puebla, the fruit of Capsicum plants have a variety of names depending on place and type. The piquant varieties are commonly called chili peppers, or simply chillies, the large, mild form is called red pepper, green pepper, or bell pepper in North America and United Kingdom and typically capsicum in New Zealand, Australia, Singapore and India. The fruit is called paprika in some other countries, ideal growing conditions for peppers include a sunny position with warm, loamy soil, ideally 21 to 29 °C, that is moist but not waterlogged. Extremely moist soils can cause seedlings to damp-off and reduce germination, the plants are sensitive to frost. For flowering, Capsicum are a non-photoperiod-sensitive crop, however, at extremely high temperature,92 to 100 °F, pollen loses viability, and flowers are much less likely to pollinate successfully. Capsicum consists of 20–27 species, five of which are domesticated, C. annuum, C. baccatum, C. chinense, C. frutescens, phylogenetic relationships between species have been investigated using biogeographical, morphological, chemosystematic, hybridization, and genetic data. Fruits of Capsicum can vary tremendously in color, shape, chemosystematic studies helped distinguish the difference between varieties and species. For example, C. baccatum var. baccatum had the same flavonoids as C. baccatum var. pendulum, peru is thought to be the country with the highest cultivated Capsicum diversity since varieties of all five domesticates are commonly sold in markets in contrast to other countries. Bolivia is considered to be the country where the largest diversity of wild Capsicum peppers are consumed. Most of the capsaicin in a pungent pepper is concentrated in blisters on the epidermis of the ribs that divide the chambers, or locules. A study on capsaicin production in fruits of C. chinense fruits, the amount of capsaicin in hot peppers varies significantly among varieties, and is measured in Scoville heat units. The worlds current hottest known pepper as rated in SHU is the Carolina Reaper, sources, Tubocapsicum anomalum Makino Vassobia fasciculata Hunz. Witheringia stramoniifolia Kunth Most Capsicum species are 2n=2x=24, a few of the non-domesticated species are 2n=2x=32
12.
Chili pepper
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The chili pepper is the fruit of plants from the genus Capsicum, members of the nightshade family, Solanaceae. In Australia, Britain, India, Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa and in other Asian countries, the substances that give chili peppers their intensity when ingested or applied topically are capsaicin and several related chemicals, collectively called capsaicinoids. After the Columbian Exchange, many cultivars of chili pepper spread across the world, chilies were brought to Asia by Portuguese navigators during the 16th century. Worldwide, some 3.8 million hectares of land produce 33 million tons of chili peppers, India is the worlds biggest producer, consumer and exporter of chili peppers. Guntur in the South Indian state of Andhra Pradesh produces 30% of all the chilies produced in India, Andhra Pradesh as a whole contributes 75% of Indias chili exports. Chili peppers have been a part of the diet in the Americas since at least 7500 BCE. Bolivia is considered to be the country where the largest diversity of wild Capsicum peppers are consumed, upon their introduction into Europe, chilies were grown as botanical curiosities in the gardens of Spanish and Portuguese monasteries. Chilies were cultivated around the globe after Indigenous people shared them with travelers, diego Álvarez Chanca, a physician on Columbus second voyage to the West Indies in 1493, brought the first chili peppers to Spain and first wrote about their medicinal effects in 1494. It was introduced in India by the Portuguese towards the end of 15th century, today chilies are an integral part of South Asian and Southeast Asian cuisines. There is a correlation between the chili pepper geographical dissemination and consumption in Asia and the presence of Portuguese traders, India. The chili pepper features heavily in the cuisine of the Goan region of India, Chili peppers journeyed from India, through Central Asia and Turkey, to Hungary, where they became the national spice in the form of paprika. To Japan, it was brought by the Portuguese missionaries in 1542, in 1995 archaeobotanist Hakon Hjelmqvist published an article in Svensk Botanisk Tidskrift claiming there was evidence for the presence of chili peppers in Europe in pre-Columbian times. According to Hjelmqvist, archaeologists at a dig in St Botulf in Lund found a Capsicum frutescens in a layer from the 13th century, Hjelmqvist thought it came from Asia. Hjelmqvist also said that Capsicum was described by the Greek Theophrastus in his Historia Plantarum, around the first century CE, the Roman poet Martialis mentioned Piperve crudum in Liber XI, XVIII, allegedly describing them as long and containing seeds. Green and red peppers, for example, are the same cultivar of C. annuum. In the same species are the jalapeño, the poblano, New Mexico, serrano, peppers are commonly broken down into three groupings, bell peppers, sweet peppers, and hot peppers. Most popular pepper varieties are seen as falling into one of these categories or as a cross between them, the substances that give chili peppers their intensity when ingested or applied topically are capsaicin and several related chemicals, collectively called capsaicinoids. Capsaicin is also the component in pepper spray, a less-than-lethal weapon
Mild
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