Capsicums (chillies and sweet peppers) are a vital part of many cuisines all over the world. They are the essence of spicy Mexican chilli salsa, Hungarian goulash, and most Asian curries. While native only to South America, capsicums are now one of the most widely cultivated crops worldwide.

Many English speakers call these plants peppers, but this can be confusing because black pepper is a different plant altogether. The confusion may have arisen when capsicums were first taken to Asia and began to replace black pepper as a spicy ingredient in food. The term capsicum may be used to refer to both the small spicy ones (usually called chillies), and the large, sweet, non-spicy ones (often called peppers).

Today, there are thousands of different varieties of capsicum including colourful ornamental ones, sweet salad peppers, and spicy blow-your-head-off chillies. Many botanists believe the origins of all these different types can be traced back to about five of the 30 or so species of Capsicum. These species can still be found growing wild in various locations in South America, with the highest species diversity in Brazil. Surprisingly, only five of these species have been domesticated. So the thousands of varieties we know today can be traced back to one of these five species.

People across the Americas have been eating and cultivating capsicums for 6000 years. Chillies and peppers were first domesticated in the Americas and they are one of the earliest farmed crops in South America. However, it is difficult to work out exactly when people started to farm capsicums. The main reason this is so difficult is because edible varieties grew successfully in the wild, meaning it is hard to know when people stopped gathering them from the wild and started to plant and cultivate them. Recently, fossilised grains of domesticated Capsicum species were found on grinding stones and cooking pots used in the Americas 4000 years ago, indicating that people were routinely farming them around 2000 BC.

Although capsicums were being grown and eaten thousands of years ago throughout South America, it is believed that capsicums were only exported after Christopher Columbus’ voyage in the 1400s. When Columbus tasted the small red berries of a chilli plant, he thought he had reached India and called them red pepper because the spice reminded him of black pepper. Columbus bought some chilli plants back to Europe and is often credited with introducing chillies to Europe, and subsequently to India, Africa, China, and Japan. Unlike eggplant, chillies were welcomed into the cuisines of Europe and within 100 years after Columbus’ voyage, capsicums had spread around the world and had become part of many national cuisines. Today, they are the defining ingredient in many traditional cuisines worldwide, including countries such as Italy, Spain, Hungary, Thailand, India, Vietnam and China. Capsicum is now one of the most widely cultivated plants in the world.

Capsaicin--the pungent, spicy compound in capsicums)--is used as a self defence spray and is also used by police across the world for riot and crowd control. The spray causes people to have trouble breathing and is very painful; the effect lasts about 20 minutes. Capsaicin has also been used to repel mice from gnawing on underground electrical cables and to keep squirrels from eating bird seed.

Introduction

A truly global ingredient, capsicums (chillies and sweet peppers) are a vital part of many cuisines all over the world. They are the essence of spicy Mexican chilli salsa, Hungarian goulash, and most Asian curries. While native only to South America, capsicums are now one of the most widely cultivated crops worldwide.

Many English speakers call these plants peppers, but this can be confusing because black pepper is a different plant altogether. The confusion may have arisen when capsicums were first taken to Asia and began to replace black pepper as a spicy ingredient in food. The term capsicum may be used to refer to both the small spicy ones (usually called chillies), and the large, sweet, non-spicy ones (often called peppers). Another confusion arises in the English speaking world regarding the spelling of spicy capsicums – is it chile, chilli or chilli? It seems that all three versions are used in different parts of the world to describe the plant, the fruit, and the delicious meals made from them.

Wild capsicums

Today, there are thousands of different varieties of capsicum including colourful ornamental ones, sweet salad peppers, and spicy blow-your-head-off chillies. Many botanists believe the origins of all these different types can be traced back to about five of the 30 or so species of Capsicum. These species can still be found growing wild in various locations in South America, with the highest species diversity in Brazil. Surprisingly, only five of these species have been domesticated. So the thousands of varieties we know today can be traced back to one of these five species.

Finding out which plants are the original ancestors of modern crop plants and trying to determine their place of origin is very challenging. To solve this puzzle for capsicums, botanists look closely at different capsicum varieties growing in the wild. Botanists also look at other crop relatives growing in the same location because areas which have the greatest diversity of crop relatives are often thought to be the centre of origin for that crop. Back in the lab, or herbarium, botanists look at a wide variety of characteristics in order to work out the relationships of the various types.

Botanists are aiming to collect herbarium specimens and seeds of all wild and domesticated varieties of capsicum; of course, this work is all done with the proper permissions from the authorities of the countries where wild capsicums grow, and in collaboration with local botanists from many countries. When complete, this collection will be very important for improving commercial capsicum varieties including enhancing disease resistance, nutritional quality, yield, and even efficiency of harvesting.

Collecting all varieties of capsicum sounds easy but it is proving to be increasingly difficult because the capsicum’s natural habitat is threatened by tropical deforestation. Also, new species are discovered all the time, so discovering diversity is an ongoing task. It is possible that a complete collection of all capsicum species may never be gathered.

Domestication of capsicums

People across the Americas have been eating and cultivating capsicums for 6000 years. Chillies and peppers were first domesticated in the Americas and they are one of the earliest farmed crops in South America. However, it is difficult to work out exactly when people started to farm capsicums. The main reason this is so difficult is because edible varieties grew successfully in the wild, meaning it is hard to know when people stopped gathering them from the wild and started to plant and cultivate them. Recently, fossilised grains of domesticated Capsicum species were found on grinding stones and cooking pots used in the Americas 4000 years ago, indicating that people were routinely farming them around 2000 BC.

Domestication of capsicum probably occurred in a similar way to the domestication of the tomato. Ancient people of South America grew wild plants, and then selected seeds from preferred plants to sow the next season. Over many years, this gave rise to plants with bigger fruit and all kinds of different colours and tastes. Today’s plant breeders are using similar techniques to create new varieties.

To find out more about plant breeding, click here.

Spread of capsicums

Although capsicums were being grown and eaten thousands of years ago throughout South America, it is believed that capsicums were only exported after Christopher Columbus’ voyage in the 1400s. When Columbus tasted the small red berries of a chilli plant, he thought he had reached India and called them red pepper because the spice reminded him of black pepper. Columbus bought some chilli plants back to Europe and is often credited with introducing chillies to Europe, and subsequently to India, Africa, China, and Japan. Unlike eggplant, chillies were welcomed into the cuisines of Europe and within 100 years after Columbus’ voyage, capsicums had spread around the world and had become part of many national cuisines. Today, they are the defining ingredient in many traditional cuisines worldwide, including countries such as Italy, Spain, Hungary, Thailand, India, Vietnam and China. Capsicum is now one of the most widely cultivated plants in the world.

Use of capsicums

Capsicums are mostly used as a seasoning or a salad vegetable. Below, we have listed many different ways the capsicum plant is used across the world – from an essential kitchen ingredient to a self defence spray. Firstly, a bit of information on their most famous characteristic.

Firepower

The most famous attribute of the capsicum is its fire power (pungency). Some are very sweet and some are so spicy they make our eyes water. The level of pungency in capsicums depends upon the amount of a substance called capsaicin. Pungency is inherited from one plant to another. This occurs in a similar way as blue eye colour is inherited in humans. Pungency, as opposed to non-pungency, is a dominant trait. So if two plants – one pungent and one non-pungent – cross pollinate then only 1 in 4 of the resulting plants will be non-pungent. This is a good example of Mendelian genetics. To find out more about Mendel click here.

Some wild species of chilli (Capsicum chacoense from Bolivia) are variable in their pungency; this seems to be related to defence from attack by microbes that can kill the plant seeds.

The spicy heat of chillies is rated in Scoville Heat Units; the higher the number, the hotter the chilli. The hottest chilli in the world is a very new breed of capsicum plant created by two plant breeders in the UK. It is called Dorset Naga and recently passed the Red Savina habañero to gain the top spot on the Scoville Scale. Originally Scoville Heat Units were assigned using a panel of five human chilli tasters who tasted a chilli and recorded the heat level. This test has been replaced by a more exact test that measures the amount of capsaicin in each fruit. Many people around the world still enter chilli eating competitions where the aim is to eat the hottest chilli on the table.

Some scientists have studied why people love to eat spicy foods and why they try to eat hotter and hotter chillies. The studies show that chillies can give people the same sensation they get from a roller-coaster ride by causing the release of compounds called endorphins.

In the kitchen

Chilli tasting experts (a bit like wine tasters) are able to distinguish between very subtle chillie flavours: ancho is sweetish, mulatto is chocolaty, mirasol is fruity, and chipotle is smokey. And different flavours can be enhanced by different cooking techniques such as grinding the pods, toasting before grinding, or soaking the chillies in water. The famous Tabasco sauce is produced differently from many other salsas. The chillies are mashed, soaked, aged, and then strained and bottled. They are not cooked and this is thought to be the secret to Tabasco’s unique flavour.

Sweet peppers are also used in many cuisines all over the world. They contain a lot of vitamin C and are used for both flavour and colour. In many parts of the world, the spicy pungent flavour is used to enhance the insipid taste of many basic nutrient foods.

Medicinal uses

Capsicums are also used for many medicinal purposes. Capsaicin (the spicy compound) is a digestive irritant, a stimulant, and can be used to relieve arthritis, muscle cramps, and toothache. Chillies are known to raise body temperature and increase the flow of saliva and gastric juices. Many people, while using spicy chillies in the kitchen, experience skin irritation, stinging eyes, and even blisters and eating too much can aggravate stomach ulcers.

Ornamental chillies

Some chillies are grown as ornamental plants for their unusual fruit shapes, thick foliage, and very colourful fruits – some plants have fruit of four or five different colours on the same plant at the same time, reflecting colour changes during fruit ripening. In New Mexico, people dry red chillies in colourful strings called ristras. The ristra is placed near the front door of the house as a symbol of hospitality. A similar method of drying chillies is used in southwestern China.

Other uses

Capsaicin (the pungent, spicy compound in capsicums) is used as a self defence spray and is also used by police across the world for riot and crowd control. The spray causes people to have trouble breathing and is very painful; the effect lasts about 20 minutes. Capsaicin has also been used to repel mice from gnawing on underground electrical cables and to keep squirrels from eating bird seed. It appears to have evolved as a plant defence against microbe attack.

How capsicums have changed

Plant breeders are always looking for ways to improve crops and new varieties of capsicums are being bred all the time. There are bigger ones, sweeter ones, ones with different shaped or more nutritious fruit, and plants with greater resistance to drought and pests. We often think of plant breeding as a fairly modern practise, but by the time Europeans arrived in Mexico, Aztec plant breeders had already developed dozens of different types of capsicum fruit. Capsicums are an important crop and improvements are still being made to chilli and pepper plants even though there are already many different types available. Recent improvements include increased quality and yield (number of fruit per plant), more variety of colours, and enhanced nutritional value. One new variety of green New Mexican chilli provides the entire minimum daily requirement of vitamin C; it has three times as much vitamin C as a Valencia orange.

An ongoing challenge in chilli growing communities is to create a chilli plant with the hottest, most fiery chillies, to bump the current one off the top of the Scoville scale (see Firepower section, above).

Unarmed annual or perennial herbs. Flowers 1-few, extra-axillary or leaf-opposed. Calyx entire, truncate or shortly dentate, not accrescent. Corolla rotate to broadly campanulate, variously coloured.  Stamens 5, ± exserted; anthers dehiscing by longitudinal splits. Fruit a berry, extremely variable in size, shape and colour.

Capsicum L.:
Brazil (South America)
Honduras (Mesoamerica)

This article is about a genus of plant. For the non-hot varieties, see bell pepper. For the hot varieties, see chili pepper.

For the heat simulating chemical in Chili pepper, see: Capsaicin

Capsicum is a genus of flowering plants in the nightshade family Solanaceae. Its species are native to the Americas where they have been cultivated for thousands of years. In modern times, it is cultivated worldwide, and has become a key element in many regional cuisines. In addition to use as spices and food vegetables, capsicum has also found use in medicines.

The fruit of Capsicum plants have a variety of names depending on place and type. They are commonly called chili pepper, red or green pepper in North America, or sweet pepper in Britain, and typically just "capsicum" in Australia, New Zealand, and India. The large mild form is called bell pepper in the U.S. and Canada. They are called paprika in some other countries (although paprika can also refer to the powdered spice made from various capsicum fruit).

The generic name is derived from the Greek word κάπτω (kapto), meaning "to bite" or "to swallow."^[3] The name "pepper" came into use because of their similar flavour to the condiment black pepper, Piper nigrum, although there is no botanical relationship with this plant, or with Sichuan pepper. The original Mexican term, chilli (now chile in Mexico) came from the Nahuatl word chilli or xilli, referring to a larger Capsicum variety cultivated at least since 3000 BC, as evidenced by remains found in pottery from Puebla and Oaxaca.^[4]

Contents 1 Capsaicin in capsicum 2 Cuisine 3 Species and varieties 3.1 Species list 3.2 Formerly placed here 4 Synonyms and common names 5 Pictures of capsicum cultivars 6 See also 7 References 8 External links

Capsaicin in capsicum

For more details on this topic, see Capsaicin.

The fruit of most species of Capsicum contains capsaicin (methyl vanillyl nonenamide), a lipophilic chemical that can produce a strong burning sensation in the mouth of the unaccustomed eater. Most mammals find this unpleasant, whereas birds are unaffected.^[5][6] The secretion of capsaicin protects the fruit from consumption by mammals while the bright colors attract birds that will disperse the seeds.

Capsaicin is present in large quantities in the placental tissue (which holds the seeds), the internal membranes and, to a lesser extent, the other fleshy parts of the fruits of plants in the genus Capsicum. Contrary to popular belief^{[citation needed]}, the seeds themselves do not produce any capsaicin, although the highest concentration of capsaicin can be found in the white pith around the seeds.^[7]

The amount of capsaicin in the fruit of Capsicums is highly variable and dependent on genetics and environment, giving almost all types of Capsicums varied amounts of perceived heat. The only Capsicum without capsaicin is the bell pepper,^[8] a cultivar of Capsicum annuum, which has a zero rating on the Scoville scale. The lack of capsaicin in bell peppers is due to a recessive gene that eliminates capsaicin and, consequently, the "hot" taste usually associated with the rest of the Capsicum family.^[9]

Chili peppers are of great importance in Native American medicine, and capsaicin is used in modern medicine—mainly in topical medications—as a circulatory stimulant and analgesic. In more recent times, an aerosol extract of capsaicin, usually known as capsicum or pepper spray, has become widely used by police forces as a non-lethal means of incapacitating a person, and in a more widely dispersed form for riot control, or by individuals for personal defence.

Although black pepper and Sichuan pepper cause similar burning sensations, they are caused by different substances—piperine and hydroxy-alpha sanshool, respectively.

Cuisine

Chili peppers

Capsicum fruits and peppers can be eaten raw or cooked. Those used in cooking are generally varieties of the C. annuum and C. frutescens species, though a few others are used as well. They are suitable for stuffing with fillings such as cheese, meat or rice.

They are also frequently used both chopped and raw in salads, or cooked in stir-fries or other mixed dishes. They can be sliced into strips and fried, roasted whole or in pieces, or chopped and incorporated into salsas or other sauces, of which they are often a main ingredient.

They can be preserved in the form of a jam,^[10] or by drying, pickling or freezing. Dried peppers may be reconstituted whole, or processed into flakes or powders. Pickled or marinated peppers are frequently added to sandwiches or salads. Frozen peppers are used in stews, soups, and salsas. Extracts can be made and incorporated into hot sauces.

Crushed red pepper

According to Richard Pankhurst, C. frutescens (known as barbaré) was so important to the national cuisine of Ethiopia, at least as early as the 19th century, "that it was cultivated extensively in the warmer areas wherever the soil was suitable." Although it was grown in every province, barbaré was especially extensive in Yejju, "which supplied much of Showa as well as other neighbouring provinces." He mentions the upper Golima river valley as being almost entirely devoted to the cultivation of this plant, where it was harvested year round.^[11]

In 2005, a poll of 2,000 people revealed the capsicum pepper to be Britain's 4th favourite culinary vegetable.^[12]

In Hungary, sweet yellow peppers - along with tomatoes - are the main ingredient of lecsó.

In Bulgaria, South Serbia and Macedonia, peppers are very popular, too. They can be eaten in salads, like Shopska Salata; fried and then covered with a dip of tomato paste, onions, garlic, and parsley; or stuffed with a variety of products—like minced meat and rice, beans, or cottage cheese and eggs. Peppers are also the main ingredient in the traditional tomato and pepper dip—lyutenitsa and ajvar. They are in the base of different kinds of pickled vegetables dishes—turshiya.

Peppers are also used widely in Italian cuisine and the hot species are used all around the southern part of Italy as a common spice (sometimes served with olive oil). Capsicum peppers are used in many dishes; they can be cooked by themselves in a variety of ways (roasted, fried, deepfried) and are a fundamental ingredient for some delicatessen specialities, like Nduja.

Capsicums are also used extensively in Sri Lankan cuisine as side dishes.^[13]

The Maya and Aztec people of Central America used Capsicum fruit in cocoa drinks as a flavouring.^[14]

Species and varieties

An arrangement of jalapeño, banana, chili, and habanero peppers

Main article: List of Capsicum cultivars

Capsicum consists of approximately 20–27 species,^[15] five of which are domesticated: C. annuum, C. baccatum, C. chinense, C. frutescens, and C. pubescens .^[16] Phylogenetic relationships between species were investigated using biogeographical,^[17] morphological,^[18] chemosystematic,^[19] hybridization,^[20] and genetic^[15] data. Fruits of Capsicum can vary tremendously in colour, shape, and size both between and within species, which has led to confusion over the relationships between taxa.^[21] Chemosystematic studies helped distinguish the difference between varieties and species. For example, C. baccatum var. baccatum had the same flavonoids as C. baccatum var. pendulum, which led researchers to believe that the two groups belonged to the same species.^[19]

Many varieties of the same species can be used in many different ways; for example, C. annuum includes the "bell pepper" variety, which is sold in both its immature green state and its red, yellow or orange ripe state. This same species has other varieties as well, such as the Anaheim chiles often used for stuffing, the dried ancho chile used to make chili powder, the mild-to-hot jalapeño, and the smoked, ripe jalapeño, known as a chipotle.

Most of the capsaicin in a pungent (hot) pepper is concentrated in blisters on the epidermis of the interior ribs (septa) that divide the chambers of the fruit to which the seeds are attached.^[22] A study on capsaicin production in fruits of C. chinense showed that capsaicinoids are produced only in the epidermal cells of the interlocular septa of pungent fruits, that blister formation only occurs as a result of capsaicinoid accumulation, and that pungency and blister formation are controlled by a single locus, Pun1, for which there exist at least two recessive alleles that result in non-pungency of C. chinense fruits.^[23]

The amount of capsaicin in hot peppers varies significantly between varieties, and is measured in Scoville heat units (SHU). The world's current hottest known pepper as rated in SHU is the Trinidad Moruga Scorpion, which has been measured at over 2,009,231 SHU.

Species list

Capsicum annuum Capsicum baccatum Capsicum buforum Hunz. Capsicum campylopodium Sendtn. Capsicum cardenasii Heiser & Capsicum chacoense Hunz. Capsicum chinense Jacq. Capsicum coccineum (Rusby) Hunz.

Capsicum cornutum (Hiern) Hunz. Capsicum dimorphum (Miers) Kuntze Capsicum dusenii Bitter Capsicum eximium Hunz. Capsicum flexuosum Sendtn. Capsicum frutescens Capsicum galapagoense Hunz. Capsicum geminifolium (Dammer) Hunz.

Capsicum hookerianum (Miers) Kuntze Capsicum lanceolatum (Greenm.) C.V.Morton & Standl. Capsicum leptopodum (Dunal) Kuntze Capsicum lycianthoides Bitter Capsicum minutiflorum (Rusby) Hunz. Capsicum mirabile Mart. ex Sendtn. Capsicum mositicum Toledo Capsicum parvifolium Sendtn.

Capsicum praetermissum Heiser & Capsicum pubescens Ruiz & Pav. Capsicum rhomboideum (Dunal) Kuntze Capsicum schottianum Sendtn. Capsicum scolnikianum Hunz. Capsicum tovarii Eshbaugh et al. Capsicum villosum Sendtn.[2]

Formerly placed here

• Tubocapsicum anomalum (Franch. & Sav.) Makino (as C. anomalum Franch. & Sav.)
• Vassobia fasciculata (Miers) Hunz. (as C. grandiflorum Kuntze)
• Witheringia stramoniifolia Kunth (as C. stramoniifolium (Kunth) Kuntze)^[2]

Synonyms and common names

Capsicum annuum cultivars

The name given to the Capsicum fruits varies between English-speaking countries.

In Australia, New Zealand and India, heatless species are called "capsicums" while hot ones are called "chilli"/"chillies" (double L). Pepperoncini are also known as "sweet capsicum". The term "bell peppers" is almost never used, although C. annuum and other varieties which have a bell-shape and are fairly hot, are often called "bell chillies".

In the United Kingdom and Ireland, the heatless varieties are commonly known simply as "peppers" (or more specifically "green peppers", "red peppers", etc.) while the hot ones are "chilli"/"chillies" (double L) or "chilli peppers".

In the United States and Canada, the common heatless species is referred to as "bell peppers", "sweet peppers", "red/green/etc. peppers", or simply "peppers", while the hot species are collectively called "chile"/"chiles", "chili"/"chilies", or "chili"/"chile peppers" (one L only), "hot peppers", or named as a specific variety (e.g., banana pepper).

In Polish and in Hungarian, the term "papryka" and "paprika" (respectively) is used for all kinds of capsicum peppers (the sweet vegetable, and the hot spicy) as well as for dried and ground spice made from them (named paprika in both U.S. English and Commonwealth English). Also fruit and spice can be attributed as "papryka ostra" (hot pepper) or "papryka słodka" (sweet pepper). The term "pieprz" (pepper) instead means only grained or ground black pepper (incl. its green, white, and red forms) but not capsicum. Sometimes the hot capsicum spice is also called "chilli".

In Italy and the Italian- and German-speaking parts of Switzerland, the sweet varieties are called "peperone" and the hot varieties "peperoncino" (literally "small pepper"). In French, capsicum is called "poivron". In German, capsicum is called "Paprika" (which may also refer to bell peppers) or "Chili"; in Dutch, this word is also used exclusively for bell peppers, whereas "chilli" is reserved for powders and hot pepper variants are referred to as "Spaanse pepers" (Spanish peppers). In Switzerland however, the condiment powder made from capsicum is called "paprika" (German language regions) and "paprica" (French and Italian language region).

In Spanish-speaking countries there are many different names for each variety and preparation. In Mexico the term chile is used for "hot peppers" while the heatless varieties are called pimiento (the masculine form of the word for pepper, which is pimienta). Several other countries, such as Chile, whose name is unrelated, Perú, Puerto Rico, and Argentina, use ají. In Spain, heatless varieties are called pimiento and hot varieties guindilla. Also, in Argentina and Spain, the variety C. chacoense is commonly known as "putaparió", a slang expression equivalent to "damn it", probably due to its extra-hot flavour. In Indian English, the word "capsicum" is used exclusively for Capsicum annuum. All other varieties of hot capsicum are called chilli. In northern India and Pakistan, Capsicum annuum is also commonly called "Shimla Mirch" in the native languages. Shimla incidentally is a popular hill-station in India (and "Mirch" means chilli in local languages).

In Japanese, tōgarashi (唐辛子, トウガラシ "Chinese mustard") refers to hot chili peppers, and particularly a spicy powder made from them which is used as a condiment, while bell peppers are called pīman (ピーマン, from the French piment or the Spanish pimiento).

Pictures of capsicum cultivars

• 

  Capsicum annuum cultivars

• 

  A variety of coloured Capsicum

• 

  Peperoncini (C. annuum)

• 

  Peperoncini in kebab restaurant

• 

  Cayenne pepper (C. annuum)

• 

  Compact plant of orange Capsicum

• 

  Habanero chili (C. chinense Jacquin)- plant with flower and fruit

• 

  Scotch bonnet (C. chinense) in a Caribbean market

• 

  Scotch bonnet (C. chinense)

• 

  Thai peppers (C. frutescens)

• 

  Fresh Indian Green chillies in Bangalore market

• 

  Piri piri (C. frutescens 'African Devil')

• 

  Naga Jolokia pepper aka Bhut Jolokia (C. chinense x C. frutescens)

• 

  Capsicum annuum flower

• 

  Capsicum annum flower close up

• 

  Green, yellow and red peppers

• 

  The flower of Red Hot Bangi Pepper, Malaysia

• 

  A small but very hot Capsicum in Malaysia

See also

• Scoville scale
• Pimento

References

1. ^ "Capiscum L.". Germplasm Resources Information Network. United States Department of Agriculture. 2009-09-01. http://www.ars-grin.gov/cgi-bin/npgs/html/genus.pl?2056. Retrieved 2010-02-01. 
2. ^ ^{a b c} "Species records of Capiscum". Germplasm Resources Information Network. United States Department of Agriculture. http://www.ars-grin.gov/cgi-bin/npgs/html/splist.pl?2056. Retrieved 2010-06-23. 
3. ^ Quattrocchi, Umberto (2000). CRC World Dictionary of Plant Names. 1 A-C. CRC Press. p. 431. ISBN 978-0-8493-2675-2. http://books.google.com/?id=esMPU5DHEGgC. 
4. ^ Gil-Jurado, A. T., Il senso del chile e del piccante: dalla traduzione culturale alla rappresentazione visiva in (G. Manetti, ed.), Semiofood: Communication and Culture of Meal, Centro Scientifico Editore, Torino, Italy, 2006:34–58
5. ^ Mason, J. R.; N. J. Bean; P. S. Shah; L. Clark Shah (December 1991). "Taxon-specific differences in responsiveness to capsaicin and several analogues: Correlates between chemical structure and behavioral aversiveness". Journal of Chemical Ecology 17 (12): 2539–2551. doi:10.1007/BF00994601. http://www.springerlink.com/content/w05ux25g162366x1/. 
6. ^ Norman, D. M.; J. R. Mason; L. Clark (1992). "Capsaicin effects on consumption of food by Cedar Waxwings and House Finches". The Wilson Journal of Ornithology 104: 549–551. 
7. ^ New Mexico State University – College of Agriculture and Home Economics (2005). "Chile Information - Frequently Asked Questions". Archived from the original on May 4, 2007. http://web.archive.org/web/20070504035555/http://spectre.nmsu.edu/dept/academic.html?i=1274&s=sub. Retrieved May 17, 2007. 
8. ^ http://www.chiliwonders.com/chili.scoville.htm
9. ^ "The World's Healthies Foods". http://whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=50. Retrieved February 23, 2010. 
10. ^ http://www.askgarden.com/when-life-gives-you-peppers-use-this-pepper-jam-recipe/
11. ^ Pankhurst, Richard (1968). Economic History of Ethiopia. Addis Ababa: Haile Selassie I University Press. pp. 193–194. 
12. ^ Wainwright, Martin (2005-05-23). "Onions come top for British palates". The Guardian (London). http://www.guardian.co.uk/britain/article/0,2763,1489887,00.html. Retrieved 2007-10-30. 
13. ^ Unknown, Unknown. "Sri Lankan Cuisine". SBS Food. SBS. http://www.sbs.com.au/food/cuisine/Key_Ingredients/22/13. Retrieved 7 May 2011. 
14. ^ Mitzewich, John. "10 Foods America Gave to the World". About.com Food Guide. About.com. http://americanfood.about.com/od/whatisamericanfood/tp/Foods-America-Gave-the-World.htm. Retrieved 7 May 2011. 
15. ^ ^{a b} Walsh, B.M.; Hoot, S.B. (2001). "Phylogenetic Relationships of Capsicum (Solanaceae) Using DNA Sequences from Two Noncoding Regions: The Chloroplast atpB-rbcL Spacer Region and Nuclear waxy Introns" (– ^{Scholar search}). International Journal of Plant Sciences 162 (6): 1409–1418. doi:10.1086/323273. http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/IJPS/journal/issues/v162n6/010108/010108.text.html. Retrieved 2007-12-20. ^{[dead link][dead link]}
16. ^ Heiser Jr, C.B.; Pickersgill, B. (1969). "Names for the Cultivated Capsicum Species (Solanaceae)". Taxon (Taxon, Vol. 18, No. 3) 18 (3): 277–283. doi:10.2307/1218828. JSTOR 1218828. 
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