Capsaicin comes from Capsicum plants. Capsicum is the name for all the species of peppers, like banana peppers, bell peppers, Jalapeños, and others. Within most peppers, large quantities of capsaicin are kept in the placental tissue, a place where the peppers keep their seeds.
Capsicum, also known as peppers, is consumed by one-quarter of the world daily. Capsicum plants originated mostly from the Americas, especially in South and Central America. Capsaicin, on the other hand, was first found in 1816 by Christian Bucholz, as he was the first one to isolate capsaicin from capsicum oleoresin, an oily resin derived from pepper fruits. Its chemical composition C18H27NO3 was first determined in 1919. At first, chemists thought capsaicin was just a single compound; however, During the 1960s the natural product was found to contain small amounts of other compounds, known as capsaicinoids.