World's Hottest Chili Pepper Successfully Bred

It's been done, folks.  The world's hottest chili pepper, as of today (December 4th, 2010), has been discovered.  Well, actually.  That's completely wrong.  Not discovered, rather bred.  Dubbed the "Naga Viper", it was the work of a British chili farmer who cross-bred three of the hottest chili peppers existing today (one of which was the previous predecessor to the title of hottest chili pepper, the "ghost chili"). 

The Naga Viper

Regardless, the new holder of the prestigious title is a whopping three-hundred thousand more points on Scoville scale than the ghost chili.  Don't know what the Scoville scale is? Me neither, so let's figure out what it is together.

The Scoville Scale

After some quick surfing and scanning, it turns out that the Scoville scale is an indirect measure of capsaicin, a chemical present in chili peppers.  It acts as an inflammatory to mammals (that includes humans for those who were somehow wondering) and produces a burning sensation in the mouth.  Now, the scale is a measure of the amount of drops it would take to fully remove any trace of capsaicin within a pepper.  If you look at the scale, the Bell Pepper has a Scoville scale rating of 0, because it has no trace of capsaicin in it whatsoever.  Vice versa for the ghost chili.

Here's what I found interesting: the scale is not a direct measure of a scientist actually taking the time to fully remove the presence of capsaicin completely.  Rather, five taste testers essentially taste the given pepper and collectively compare their estimates on what the pepper should be rated upon the Scoville scale.  It is because of this that the scale is not necessarily the most reliable source of factual information, but it's a good start nonetheless.

What kills me is that the British founder of the Naga Viper actually claims that the aforementioned pepper produces soothing after effects.

Um...

What?

He states that, sure, the pepper numbs your tongue and burns within your belly for an hour, but the endorphins released produce a therapeutic effect.  Somehow, I think that "endorphin rush" he's feeling is being mistaken for the body slowly burning down from the inside out.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_thelookout/20101203/sc_yblog_thelookout/worlds-hottest-pepper-is-hot-enough-to-strip-paint