Why are chillies pungent?

Borges, Renee M (2001) Why are chillies pungent? In: Journal of Biosciences, 26 (3). pp. 289-291.

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Abstract

Early voyagers to the Americas, including Central America, Mexico, Peru, and Chile, found many forms of peppers, among them the 'hot' (pungent) ones. In Spain these hot peppers are called chili, meaning from Chile, and in India, chillies. When asked to guess the source of chillies, one might think of Mexico. However, despite the plant's popularity in that country, it is believed that chillies- or, to use the misleading but widely used name by which they are called in the United States, chili peppers-originated in South America, after which they spread to Central America. Most of the varieties of pepper referred to as chili peppers belong to Capsicum annuum L; some varieties with "chili" in their name are actually C. frutescens L.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Publication:	Journal of Biosciences
Publisher:	Indian Academy of Sciences
Additional Information:	This article was published under the section 'Clipboard' in Journal of Biosciences.
Keywords:	Chillies;Capsicum annuum L;C. frutescens L.;capsaicin;N-vanillyl-8-methyl-6-(E)-noneamide
Department/Centre:	Division of Biological Sciences > Centre for Ecological Sciences
Date Deposited:	23 Oct 2007
Last Modified:	19 Sep 2010 04:12
URI:	http://eprints.iisc.ac.in/id/eprint/214

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