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scovilles Dragon's breath...2.48m scovilles?

Funny because I just ran into a couple references on the Dragon's Breath pepper while trying to find information on a drug by the same name.  I forget the botanical name of its source, might start with a B.  Its a tree in, I think Columbia.  It is being pitched as the next date rape drug here in the US.  Have a 13 year old daughter.  Try to stay on top of things.
 
About the pepper: I really like the way it looks, all tiny and wrinkled.  If I understand super hots right, the more wrinkle, the more interior surface, the more heat.  The British pepper heads are fierce about their chili.  So I wouldn't be surprised if that is where the next champion is going to come from.  Thing is, I am not so sure about the Guinness record anymore.  Before the Carolina Reaper, there were a couple real fast crown holder changes.  Then a bunch of arguing over the Carolina Reaper.  I think Guinness changed the rules to a point where a person has to have a great deal of money invested to prove to Guinness the crown should again be transferred.

It is kind of a cool competition.  But the business end of it has gotten so big that the hottest title has kind of lost its county fair sort of appeal.  You know, the biggest watermelon sort of thing.  That and as high as the record is now, well I can not imagine wanting to eat the thing.  Still, I would grow it if the seed were available cause it is really neat looking.
 
Pr0digal_son said:
Getting a good laugh picturing the interviewers asking Mr.Smith which parthenocapic pod he wants to showcase.

"BUGGER ME! Use the one with the rotten stem that looks like a dragon."
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:rofl:  :rofl:  :rofl:  :rofl:
 
This one creating a lot of noise in UK chilli groups on FB...
 
Here is the latest from the guy claiming to be involved in the development, I'm pretty dubious as things stand.
 
"Ok guys here's the update on the dragons breath, this has been developed with chillibobs and we have the rights to the seedling and seeds Guinness has the seedlings and doing DNA checks as we speak so we don't have the record we are working with Mike for Chelsea but we grew it working with NPK this is a real chilli which had a Welsh holiday the pod shown is a winter pod I have photos and test details to confirm. Watch this space"
 
dennish said:
Here is the latest from the guy claiming to be involved in the development, I'm pretty dubious as things stand.
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"this has been developed with chillibobs and we have the rights to the seedling and seeds"
 
Oh boy...... 
tenor.gif

"Guinness has the seedlings and doing DNA checks as we speak so we don't have the record"
 
Rat-Funny-Laugh-Cartoon.gif

"this is a real chilli I have photos and test details to confirm. Watch this space"
 
81117a5a760efcf53a17a014e5f645f4.gif
 
Aparently a Welsh farmer in uk just grew a "tree" doesn't like chillies but gave it a go so how he stabilised it enough to give it a name no one seems to know yet.
 
The_NorthEast_ChileMan said:
Yawn, only 2.5 million SHU's? This one's 4.7 million SHU's....> Borbhut
 
3 things, I can claim any SHU's I want for any pepper but without HPLC Testing it's just that, a claim, every six months someone lays claim to the hottest pepper (Just wait!) and The Mirror is one of the UK's premier tabloids that pass this kind of trash off as news.
 
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please don't call the mirror a premier paper all red tops are crap over here the reading age for them tends to be about 14 years old so they can cover more british morons
 
This link gives a better description and is a reliable website..

http://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/welsh-farmer-accidentally-creates-worlds-hottest-chili/

However reading this and all other info I've come across doesn't explain whether or not the plant is actually stable. It is my understanding that if the dragons breath is a recent cross than it can't go into the Guinness world records.

But it makes me wonder, if the farmer did not intend on growing the worlds hottest then how much influence the university have? Seems it was in their best interest to creat something super hot so they may no more about what was selected to make it as hot as it is.
 
Everything I have heard has said that the Reaper was very lucky to get the reccord when it did because a 5 year isolated grow requirement was introduced very shortly after.
It is now 5 years old so we will soon start seeing the chillies bred specifically to compete with it getting official ratings. Whether they will actually claim the throne is unknown though.
 
This pepper, on the other hand, is something I've never heard of before and I highly doubt it has been grown in secret for anywhere near that long. I will be amazed if Guiness don't just throw it out on principal, regardless of its heat.
Not to mention the other issues, such as comparing this pepper's peak heat to an outdated version of the Reaper's average.
 
And, of course, the rating is heat per weight so the actual capsaicin volume will probably actually be less than current supers.
 
shooter said:
please don't call the mirror a premier paper all red tops are crap over here the reading age for them tends to be about 14 years old so they can cover more british morons
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The problem shooter is the language barrier, you speak the Queen's English and we speak American English. So, getting back to my post, "The Mirror is one of the UK's premier tabloids that pass this kind of trash off as news.", you'll note the definition below has a North American version of tabloid.  ;)
 
 
Tabloid_zpsonddnmwp.jpg
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If I chose the requirements, I'd make it so that:
-heat is measured by capsaicin concentration per weight. SHU isn't a measurement, it's a scale, at least as far as my knowledge of it extends.
-Heat is taken as an average over several pods from several plants over a few generations.
-Stability must be assured. The seeds should produce plants pretty much the same as the parents for a few generations.

But on the topic of record breaking varieties being produced, how long is it until we begin genetically engineering plants in a lab? We could figure out the genome for chillies, and then boost the capsaicin producing stuff. You could even throw in some resinifertoxin producing things in, and voila, you've got a chilli with heat incomparable to the supers of today! If you wanted, you could engineer plants to grow thorns as well, to give them a deadly look....
 
Spicefreak, I am confused.  Heat per weight?  I thought SHU was a measurement of dried powder of the whole pepper without respect to volume or weight.  On being grown in secret, if a university were growing it maybe they didnt let we peons know.
 
Asked the person involved some questions "Is there any more background on this please xxxx... what is the parentage? what is the cross generation? what is the generation of the seed being mentioned - is it stablised? what do full sized pods look like (the pictured ones are early season tiddlers)? what does it taste like? Is the SHU being banded about an average from many pods or just a one off test of a single pod? Sorry for all the questions. Thanks..."

Here was the answer, apparently the chilli will be revealed at the Chelsea flower show this week...

"All will be out shortly we are waiting for final tests with Guinness so not sure the splice, I had 7 plants 3 took through winter 1 died, 3 pods picked off 3 different plants all from 2.3-2.7m Shu I will have a pic of summer pods out soon but if you look on chillibobs on Google and look at our images there is photos of the chilli there I'm sure it's stabilised and we have worked with npk on the food"
 
I've read a dozen of news articles about this new Dragons Breath pepper, and most of the titles present it as a deadly pepper that can cause anaphylactic shock. So my question is anyone ever heard of deadly cases caused by eating Carolina Reaper? If so, whats the difference in terms of capsaicin content of 2,2mm and 2,48? What SHU would actually be considered deadly, or not safe to eat?
 
AJ Drew said:
Spicefreak, I am confused.  Heat per weight?  I thought SHU was a measurement of dried powder of the whole pepper without respect to volume or weight.  On being grown in secret, if a university were growing it maybe they didnt let we peons know.
Click to expand...
 

SHU is based upon a measure of drops of sugar water needed needed to neutralise an equivalent drop of chilli. It is measured dried for convienience but is, due to its origins, either heat per weight or heat per volume of that dried pepper.
 
ThatBlondGuy101 said:
But on the topic of record breaking varieties being produced, how long is it until we begin genetically engineering plants in a lab? We could figure out the genome for chillies, and then boost the capsaicin producing stuff. You could even throw in some resinifertoxin producing things in, and voila, you've got a chilli with heat incomparable to the supers of today! If you wanted, you could engineer plants to grow thorns as well, to give them a deadly look....
Click to expand...
 
The moment we get resiniferatoxin in there I'm out. The science behind the lethal dose measurement is garbage but it's still literally poison. A capsaicin analogue that doesn't let go until the nerve shutdown response becomes permanent.
 
Tinyatoxin may or may not be safe but resiniferatoxin most certainly is not.
 
AJ Drew said:
Yes, the media screw things up.  But if they got it right, its not the plant but the "plant food"?
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"Fertilization" was claimed to be a factor in the Trinidad Scorpion Butch T pepper record:
 
One possible secret to the chili's heat, according to a cultivator of the pepper, is fertilizing the soil with the liquid runoff of a worm farm.[6] 
 
` World's hottest chilli grown by Aussies
 
Secret to hottest chillies: worm juice
 
The two worked with honours student Mark Peacock, who was studying chillies at the University of Sydney. Mark's technical skill supplemented the farmers' practical know-how. 
 
Marcel adopted Neil's idea in using liquid runoff from a worm farm - 'worm juice' - to fertilise the crop and he believes this is the secret to the super-hot chilli.
 
"He originally worked with it but didn't understand why it worked," says Mark, who studied the fertiliser. He discovered that worm juice contains nutrients, plant growth hormones and promoters, beneficial bacteria that colonise the root area, and chitin from dead insects that triggers the plant's natural defence systems.
 
Mark uses worm juice on the Trinidad Scorpion Butch T chillies growing in his back yard.
 
"We use very, very similar growing techniques and that probably has the most to do with attaining maximum genetic potential of the chilli," says Mark.
 
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