How do people create peppers that are even hotter than the previous by combining exisiting peppers that are less hot on its own.

Question

How do people create peppers that are even hotter than the previous by combining exisiting peppers that are less hot on its own.

In: Biology

Answer 1

A specific pepper can have a range of how hot it is, rated on the Scoville Scale. For example, a Jalepeño can be rated anywhere from 2,500 to 10,000 units on the scale, while the Carolina Reaper can be anywhere from 1.5 million to a little over 2 million Scoville units. To breed hotter peppers, you cross plants that tend to produce peppers that lean towards the higher end of the scale. The Carolina Reaper was created by combining the previous record holding pepper, the Naga Viper (1.3 million SU), with another pepper from the Caribbean Islands.