Red Hot Chili Peppers Essay -- Botany

Red Hot Chili PeppersA sexual love for foods from the American Southwest is sweeping through the country. The main component and nearly popular item of this fad is the chilli pepper pepper, an item of tremendous variant and a staple of many people in Central America. In this country, chili peppers were once only undercoat in specialized heathen stores, but now it is just as likely to be found at the neighborhood Kroger. For most people, however, their knowledge stops here. Through this radical I hope to educate the reader on some new(prenominal) aspects of this intriguing vegetable, much(prenominal) as its history, chemistry, and uses. There is some confusion everywhere what a chili pepper is. To many it is only the hot varieties of pepper, such as the jalapeno or the serrano. Others include the milder varieties, such as the tam-tam pepper. Websters Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary of the English Language defines a chili pepper as ... the pod of any species of capsicum, esp. Capsicum frutescens. In this paper, the bound chili pepper will be used to describe both the hot and mild varieties. When asked to name the source of chili peppers, most people would name Mexico. However, despite the plants popularity in that country, it is believed that chili peppers originated in South America, later which it spread to Central America. Pepper remains found in Tehuacan, Mexico, were go out to approximately 7000 B.C., showing that chili peppers were established long before capital of Ohio arrived. In fact, chili peppers were among the first plants to be domesticated, due to its weedy character and the easy transportability of its seeds (Andrews 1984). When Columbus arrived in the New World, he mistook the chili peppers for a relative of black pepper, Piper nigrum, which is why ... ... mankind. Works Cited Andrews, Jean. Pepppers. Austin University of Texas Press, 1984. Creasy, Rosalind. Chiles for Flavor. organic fertilizer Gardening Mar. 1990 32-36. John son, Jon R, and Charles D. Johnson. Two Zesty Alternatives to Bell Peppers. Vegetable Grower whitethorn 1992 24-27. Metabolism and Toxicity of Capsaicin. Nutritional Reviews 44.1 (1986) 20-22. Proulx, E.A. Some Like Them Hot. Horticulture Jan. 1985 46-53. Robbins, Jim. It Feels Like Your Lips are Going to Fall Off. Smithsonian Jan 1992 42-51. Rowland, B.J., B. Villalon, and E.E. Burns. Capsaicin Production in Sweet Bell and savage Jalapeno Peppers. Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry 31 (1983) 484-487. Smith, capital of Minnesota G, Benigno Villalon, and Philip L. Villa. Horticultural Classification of Peppers Grown in the United States. Hortscience 22 (1987) 11-13.