Cooking With Fire - an MJM Grande Enterprises Ltd. Production

The World’s Hottest Chile!
November 17th, 2010

The Naga Jolokia (the name originates from the ferocious Naga warriors what once inhabited Nagaland, an area in the far north-east part of India), also known as the Bhut Jolokia, ghost or cobra chile, is considered to be the hottest in the world. The Guiness World Records certified in 2007 that the Naga Jolokia was the hottest chile pepper recorded to date, being 400 times hotter than Tabasco sauce.

The Naga Jolokia is found in Bangladesh, the Assam region of northeastern India and Sri Lanka. These fiery little peppers (2 – 3 1/2 inches long and 1 to 1 1/2 inches wide) range in units of heat on the Scoville scale from 850,000 units to 1,042,000. For comparison purposes, Tabasco sauce measures from 2,500 to 5,000 units. Yikes! The Scoville rating of these chiles is dramatically impacted by the climate they are grown in (they will have far less heat if grown in an arid versus a humid climate).

Believe it or not, this chile is used in India as a homeopathic remedy for stomach ailments, as a spice to induce perspiration in the heat of summer (for natural air-conditioning purposes), in smoke bombs or smeared on fences to keep wild elephants away, as a hand grenade ingredient for crowd and terrorist control, and as a pepper spray ingredient for police use and self-defence.

Bug Off – Improved Pepper Repellents Beat DEET!
June 30th, 2008

Imagine dousing yourself with mosquito repellent at the start of summer and remaining bite-free nearly all season long!

Researchers in Gainesville, Fla., have identified several potent mosquito repellents that keep bugs from biting for up to 73 days — more than three times longer than the current gold standard, N,N-diethyl-m-toluamide, better known as DEET.  DEET is the world’s most widely used bug repellent.

The experiment showed that “most of these novel acylpiperidines were equivalent to or better than DEET in duration of protection,” Katritzky writes in the journal article. His team reports that DEET repelled the mosquitoes for 17.5 days.  Some of the pepper-based compounds lasted up to 73 days.

The team published their findings in the May 27, 2008 issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

But because bug sprays wear off with water and washings, it’s unlikely you’d be able to spray once and keep bugs off all summer — unless of course you never shower, sweat, or swim.  You should always reapply insect repellents after such activities.  However, longer-lasting mosquito repellents are favorable, because many of us forget to reapply and don’t use protection when we need it — and chances are mosquitoes are around even when you don’t see them.  Using insect repellent helps protect you against dangerous mosquito-borne diseases such as West Nile virus and malaria.