With chilli to the Nobel Prize: Research into sensitivity to heat in humans recently led to the award of the Nobel Prize in Medicine. How do nerve cells react to heat and pressure? This is what the two US researchers David Julius and Ardem Patapoutian discovered. The substance in the chilli pepper - capsaicin - enabled them to discover one of the body's most important pain receptors. One of the two researchers used capsaicin, which causes a burning sensation, to identify a sensor in the nerve endings of the skin that reacts to heat. What does this have to do with Paul M. Müller?
Well, we also have "spicy things" in our range, such as these jalapenos or chillies. And they are delicious as spicy additions to various dishes in the kitchen, but also have a certain heat. Both products contain capsaicin.
The background: The spiciness of a food, i.e. the pungency of the flavour, is given in Scoville: This unit of measurement provides information on how hot a food is and determines the capsaicin content of the product. Capsaicin belongs to the chemical group of alkaloids (organic nitrogen-containing chemical compounds) and is obtained from the nightshade plant Capsicum (capsicum variety). It is one of the most pungent substances on earth. So: the higher the capsaicin content, the hotter the pepper! The measurement method according to Scoville is abbreviated to SHU (Scoville Heat Units) and describes the detectable heat by calculating the pure capsaicin content in the respective product. Until the year 2000, the maximum value was defined as 16,000,000 Scoville. For example, a simple garden pepper with no detectable heat has a Scoville rating of 0, but the Scoville scale now ranges from 0 to 25,000,000 - the heat level of pure capsaicin.
For orientation: People perceive a slight spiciness from a Scoville level of 16 SHU. Certain types of chilli peppers, such as Santa Fe chilli, have a value of between 100 and 500 SHU. This depends on the harvest time, degree of ripeness and exposure to sunlight. Tabasco sauce usually has between 1000 and 2500 SHU, while jalapeno chillies have a Scoville value of between 2500 and 10,000 SHU. But here too, there are milder and hotter versions. Paul M. Müller has both in its range for professional chefs - so that everyone can cook and season to their own taste! Bon appétit.
