The pepper burning scale is an interesting tool for measuring the severity of various types of peppers. It was invented by the American pharmacist Wilbur Scoville in 1912.
Also interesting is the very method of determining hotness. At that time, it was already known that capsaicin is the unit of pepper sharpness. But people did not know why different varieties have different acuteness and which one. Scoville was the first to solve this problem.
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He took a number of different types of peppers. Soaked them in alcohol for a day (since capsaicin is able to dissolve in alcohol). The next day he took 1 ml. this solution and added in 999 ml. sweet water. I tried it. And if it burned, then the diluted liquid was again added to sweet water, and so on until the moment when only a sweet taste is felt. The amount of dilution just formed the basis of the pepper burning scale. Then people realized that different types of peppers in hotness can differ tens or hundreds of times.
Despite the usefulness of this invention, the scientific community rejected it, but the food industry happily took it. By the way, many scientists tried to invent their own method, they even did something, but Scovill's method remained the most useful.
And now let's go directly to the scale itself. It is measured in Scoville Units (ECU). Types of peppers are listed in it, the content of ECU in which is from 0 to 16, 000, 000. At the very bottom is paprika - 0 ECC, and pure capsaicin (15, 000, 000 - 16, 000, 000 ECC) is located at the top of the scale.
Often eat famous jalapenos (2500 - 8000), Tabasco sauce, Jamaican pepper and Poblano (used to prepare the main dish of Independent Mexico Day). They, due to their palatability, that is, pungency, are often used in hot sauces, spicy mixtures and pickles by culinary specialists all over the world.
The sharpest pepper used in food is Scorpio Trinidad. The name justifies it, stings, most likely, not childishly, has about 1, 000, 000 ECU. Even its processing is not complete without chemical protection suits. Honestly, I can not imagine its use in food - he still has 700, 000 ECU, and would be dangerous to health.
By the way, capsaicin does not dissolve in cold water, so after eating pepper to remove its burning ability with cold water does not make sense. But if you still want to get rid of this burning sensation, then alcohol, bread, citrus fruits are ideal, but the best “medicine” is milk, or rather milk protein.