The Edmondson Blog

The active ingredient in a curry or chilli is capsaicin. The more capsaicin present, the hotter the curry. Ordinary Tabasco sauce is about 260 parts per million capsaicin. A habanero chilli contains about 17,000ppm. Theoretically, the hottest curry you can make would be a bowl of pure capsaicin crystals. This dish would be 10,000 times hotter than a vindaloo. Although capsaicin does not actually cause a chemical burn or direct tissue damage itself, the impact on the nervous
system of such powerful stimulation is similar to an allergic reaction. As well as incredible pain, you could expect uncontrollably streaming eyes and nose, upper body spasms, and severe difficulty breathing for 30 to 45 minutes. In fact, our ultimate curry would be five times stronger than the pepper spray used by police for riot
control Provided you are healthy with no history of heart conditions or asthma it might be possible to survive a teaspoon of pure capsaicin, but impossible to east anything else for a few hours.

Theoretical limit: 5g capsaicin
Current record: 0.1g

In 2005, Blair Lazar refined 500g of capsaicin from chilli peppers to
create a sauce. He tried a single crystal, 'It was like having your
tongue hit with a hammer', he said.


I see a challenge.

Hat tip: Ma