About Scoville Heat Index

A display of hot peppers and the Scoville scale at a supermarket in Houston, Texas

• • The Scoville scale, or Scoville Heat Index, is a measurement of the spicy heat of a chili pepper, due to its capsaicin content.

  • The scale is used to rank peppers in order from mildest to hottest.

  • Capsaicin is a chemical compound that stimulates chemoreceptor nerve endings in the skin, especially the mucous membranes.

  • The number of Scoville heat units (SHU) indicates the amount of capsaicin present.

  • The scale is named after its creator, American chemist Wilbur Scoville, who developed a test for rating the pungency of chili peppers.

  • His method, which he devised in 1912, is known as the Scoville Organoleptic Test.

  • It starts with zero being the mildest and goes over 1,000,000 to indicate the hottest peppers.

  • The chilis with the highest rating on the Scoville scale exceed one million Scoville units and include specimens of naga jolokia or bhut jolokia and its cultivars, the "Dorset naga" and the "Infinity chili," neither of which has official cultivar status.

  • Numerical results for any specimen vary depending on its cultivation conditions and the uncertainty of the laboratory methods used to assess the capsaicinoid content.