Ghost pepper
The ghost pepper, also known as bhut jolokia and ghost chili, is an interspecific hybrid chili pepper cultivated in Northeast India. It is a hybrid of Capsicum chinense and Capsicum frutescens and is closely related to the Naga Morich.
In 2007, Guinness World Records certified that the ghost pepper was the world's hottest chili pepper, 400 times hotter than Tabasco sauce. The ghost chili is rated at more than 1 million Scoville Heat Units. However, in the race to grow the hottest pepper, the ghost chili was superseded by the Infinity chili in 2011 and Carolina Reaper in 2013.
Etymology and regional names
In Nagaland, its traditional region of cultivation, the chili is called Naga jolokia and bhoot jolokia. There is some dispute as to whether the latter name means 'large-pod chili', 'ghost chili', or should be rendered Bhot jolokia. This name is especially common in other regions where it is grown, such as Assam and Manipur. Another Assamese name is bih zôlôkia, denoting the plant's heat. Other usages on the subcontinent are Saga jolokia, Indian mystery chili and Indian rough chili.It has also been called the Tezpur chili after the Assamese city of Tezpur. In Manipur, the chili is called umorok, or oo-morok.
Scoville rating
In 2000, India's Defence Research Laboratory reported a Scoville rating of 855,000 SHUs, and in 2004 a rating of 1,041,427 SHUs was made using HPLC analysis. For comparison, Tabasco red pepper sauce rates at 2,500–5,000, and pure capsaicin rates at 16,000,000 SHUs. In 2005, New Mexico State University's Chile Pepper Institute in Las Cruces, New Mexico, found ghost peppers grown from seed in southern New Mexico to have a Scoville rating of 1,001,304 SHUs by HPLC. Unlike most peppers, ghost peppers produces capsaicin in vesicles found in both the placenta around the seeds and throughout the fruit, rather than just the placenta.Characteristics
Ripe peppers measure long and wide with a red, yellow, orange, or chocolate color. The unselected strain of ghost peppers from India is an extremely variable plant, with a wide range in fruit sizes and fruit production per plant, and offers a huge potential for developing much better strains through selection in the future. Ghost pepper pods are unique among peppers, with their characteristic shape, and very thin skin. However, the red fruit variety has two different fruit types, the rough, dented fruit and the smooth fruit. The images on this page show examples of both the rough and the smooth fruit. The rough fruit plants are taller, with more fragile branches, and the smooth fruit plants yields more fruit, and is a more compact plant with sturdier branches. It takes about 7–12 days to germinate at 32–38 °C.| Plant height | 45–120 cm |
| Stem color | Green |
| Leaf color | Green |
| Leaf length | 10.65–14.25 cm |
| Leaf width | 5.4–7.5 cm |
| Pedicels per axil | 2 |
| Corolla color | Yellow green |
| Anther color | Pale blue |
| Annular constriction | Present below calyx |
| Fruit color at maturity | Red is the most common, with orange, yellow and chocolate as rarer varieties |
| Fruit shape | Subconical to conical |
| Fruit length | 5.95–8.54 cm |
| Fruit width at shoulder | 2.5–2.95 cm |
| Fruit weight | 6.95–8.97 g |
| Fruit surface | Rough, uneven or smooth |
| Seed color | Light tan |
| 1000 seed weight | 4.1–5.2 g |
| Seeds per fruit | 19–35 |
| Hypocotyl color | Green |
| Cotyledonous leaf shape | Deltoid |