Joan Swenson: Cal State is the hot spot for growers with scorching peppers
| Monday, Sep 29 2008 07:00 PM
Last Updated Friday, Mar 27 2009 02:47 PM
Images
Peppers in acetone in a Cal State Bakersfield chemistry lab during processing to determine the amount of capsaicin in each variety. (Photo courtesy of Joan Swenson)
Super-hot peppers: the scorpion pepper, glimpsed in the lower left corner and the Naga Bhut pepper, center, growing in the Cal State Bakersfield greenhouse. The peppers, according to Dr. Roy LaFever, are rated at 1 million on the Scoville index, or twice as hot as habanero peppers. (Photo courtesy of Joan Swenson)
So you think you’ve got hot peppers?
Enter your peppers in the “Hottest Pepper in Kern County” competition at Cal State Bakersfield and you can find out exactly how Scoville-index-rated-hot your habaneros — or any other fresh, home garden-grown peppers — really are.
Dr. Roy Lafever, a plant biochemist and professor at CSUB, conceived the contest, which admittedly doesn’t come with a huge first prize — a certificate — but it does give one some cool bragging rights. Wouldn’t you like to say your peppers are super-hot?
The deadline to bring peppers to the CSUB Science I building is Oct. 15.
Lafever said he came up with the idea for the contest because of people’s interest in super-hot peppers and to give his students real-world practice in the chemistry lab analyzing the contest entries.
“It captures people’s imaginations,” Lafever said of contests like those that make their way into the Guinness Book of World Records. “And we’re trying to get experience for our students running the analysis and interact with the community as well.”
Lafever has been involved in plant research for nearly 20 years. His current project focuses on capsaicin production in peppers. Capsaicin is the hot or “pungent” ingredient in peppers.
For his research he has 40 varieties of peppers growing in the Cal State Bakersfield greenhouse, including Naga Bhut, an Indian pepper, and Scorpion, from Trinidad, which are both ranked at 1 million on the Scoville index, or twice as hot as the famous habanero pepper.
More than merely a food enhancer, Lafever said capsaicin is being used in a variety of ways, including pain relief and inflammation treatment, as anti-microbial agents, and as a treatment for prostate cancer. Discovering how plants produce the burning capsaicin is his goal.
The contest will also give CSUB chemistry students experience in analyzing exactly how much capsaicin the peppers produce. The process includes chopping the peppers, soaking them in acetone for 24 to 48 hours and then filtering, concentrating and dehydrating the mixture before adding it to an organic solvent. Finally, the liquid is fed into a high-pressure liquid chromatograph to determine the pepper’s hotness on the Scoville index.
Each gardener may submit one pepper variety with at least three peppers from the same plant totaling at least 25 grams, or approximately one ounce. Peppers must be grown in Kern County; dried peppers are not eligible. A $20 entry fee will be used to offset the cost of analysis.
To enter the contest, bring your peppers and entry fee to the science stockroom, located on the first floor of Science I, between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. Monday through Friday until Oct. 15. Entry forms and complete details can be found at csub.edu/chemistryor by contacting Lafever at rlafever@csub.edu.
