annuum Chiltepin SHU according to wikipedia

[SatanicFlatIron]

Why does wikipedia say that C. annuum var. glabriusculum can reach 2.5 million SHU? Isn't chiltepin already the hottest C. annuum, with just its 100k SHU?
The only Capsicum species that can go beyond 100k should be C. chinense. There's something wrong with giving chiltepin a scoville rating comparable to guinness superhots

This is the linked paper: Measurement of Capsaicinoids in Chiltepin Hot Pepper: A Comparison Study between Spectrophotometric Method and High Performance Liquid Chromatography Analysis

 

[ahayastani]

I have not read the publication in depth, but they find capsaicinoid concentrations of ~30-130 mg/g, which sounds wrong to me.

 

[HellfireFarm]

Wikipedia is ALWAYS right, don't you know that?

 

[CaneDog]

I took a quick look at that paper too and it's showing some huge numbers pretty much across the board. It doesn't seem right. It is interesting they reflect that the green ripe fruits had the highest heat levels, with significant degradation as they progress to red ripe. I'm used to thinking of that more the other way around.

 

[HellfireFarm]

My experience reflects that - green < ripe.

Someone's going to see the wiki article and thing that tepins are actually that hot. Problem is then they'll think they can handle a scorpion...

 

[SatanicFlatIron]

My experience reflects that - green < ripe.

While I generally agree about that, a couple of years ago I looked for the reason why some green annuum can be as hot as the red counterparts, and I found an interesting paper explaining that, once reached the full pod shape (still green) the capsaicin reaches its peak; then it progressively degrades.
I have little experience with the other species, because differently from annuum they are usually not good when unripe

 

[HellfireFarm]

Interesting, I'll have to try to find that paper.

I remember my first experience with a Ghost was a green one, and I recall thinking "There must be something wrong, this isn't that hot".
Then I had a ripe one...

 

[Annuchin]

The 2.5 Mio Scoville value is not from an accepted or reliable method. Their simple spectrophotometric method doesn't separate any substances, so the absorption could be due to any substance in their sample mix. They use these values only to show a broad correlation between the validated real standard method (HPLC) and their shortcut method. This value must be removed from Wikipedia. Also, the measured 1.6 Mio SHU by HPLC are hard to believe.