Chili Pepper Products

Capsicum annuum L. (scientific name: Capsicum annuum L.) is a one-year or limited perennial herb of dicotyledon, solanaceae, and capsicum. Stems subglabrous or puberulent, branches slightly zigzag. The leaves are alternate, the top nodes of the branches do not elongate but become twins or clusters, oblong oval, oval or oval lanceolate, entire, the top is short and acuminate or acute, and the base is narrow and cuneate; Flowers solitary, drooping; Calyx cup-shaped, inconspicuously 5-toothed; Corolla white, lobes ovate; The anthers are grayish purple. Fruiting pedicels are stout and drooping; The fruit is long finger shaped, with gradually sharp and often curved top. It is green when immature, and becomes red, orange or purplish red when mature. It tastes spicy. Seeds flat kidney shaped, yellowish.

Plant morphology

Annual or limited perennial plants; Height: 40-80 cm. Stems subglabrous or puberulent, branches slightly zigzag. The leaves are alternate, and the top nodes of the branches do not elongate into twins or clusters, which are oval, oval or oval lanceolate, 4-13 cm long, 1.5-4 cm wide, entire, short acuminate or acute at the top, and narrow cuneate at the base; Petiole 4-7 cm long. Flowers solitary, drooping; Calyx cup-shaped, inconspicuously 5-toothed; Corolla white, lobes ovate; The anthers are grayish purple. Fruiting pedicels are stout and drooping; The fruit is long finger shaped, with gradually sharp and often curved top. It is green when immature, and becomes red, orange or purplish red when mature. It tastes spicy. There are two kinds of chili flowers, one is white, the other is purple. Both kinds of flowers have four petals to six petals. And the two kinds of pepper are different: the pepper from purple flowers is purple, while the pepper from white flowers is ordinary red pepper. Seeds flat reniform, 3-5 mm long, yellowish. The flowering and fruiting period is from May to November.

Growth habits

At the beginning of pepper growth, it is the germination period. Generally, it is about 5-8 days after germination and sowing, and the first true leaf appears about 15 days later. It is the seedling stage when the flower bud is exposed. The flowering period is from the first panicle to the door pepper. The fruiting period is from fruit setting to seedling pulling. The suitable temperature for pepper is 15-34 ℃. The suitable temperature for seed germination is 25-30 ℃, which takes 5-7 days. When the temperature is lower than 15 ℃ or higher than 35 ℃, the seed will not germinate.

High temperature is required in seedling stage, 25-30 ℃ in daytime, 15-18 ℃ at night is the best. The seedlings are not resistant to low temperature, so pay attention to cold prevention.

Peppers will drop flowers and fruits at 35 ℃. Capsicum is strict with the condition of water. It is neither drought tolerant nor waterlogging tolerant. I like dry air conditions.

      

      

Spicy Reason

Capsaicin is an alkaloid containing vanillin, which can bind to vanillin receptor subtype1 (VR1) of sensory neurons. Because the VR1 receptor is activated to transmit a burning sensation (it will also be activated when it is stimulated by heat), when eating chili, you will feel a burning sensation. This burning feeling will make the brain produce a wrong concept of body injury and start to release the pain relieving substance of the human body - endorphin, so it can make people feel happy. The more they eat, the more they feel.

Capsaicin is slightly alkaline after pH test. The first advantage of eating pepper is that it can reduce the acid content in human body. Because human diet likes acidic food, the acid content in the body is high, so the toxins in the body cannot be effectively discharged from the body. In order to balance the acid-base food chain in the body, you should also eat a small amount of food and vegetables containing capsaicin at ordinary times to ensure that the pH value of the body fluid is basically in a balanced state. If you eat spicy vegetables, you can add acidic substances when cooking spicy vegetables to reduce the content of capsaicin.

In 1912, Wilbur L. Scoville, an American scientist, first formulated a unit to judge the pungency of hot peppers. The unit was to grind the peppers and dilute them with sugar water until no pungency was detected. At this time, the dilution multiple represented the pungency of the peppers. In memory of Scoville, the Spiciness Standard was named Scoville Index, and the "SHU, Scoville Heat Unit" became the unit of Spiciness.

      

Scoville's method of tasting and judging spiciness has been replaced by instrumental quantitative analysis, but his unit system has remained. On the spiciness of chilies, just look at their Scoville index.