Original photo by VI Studio/ Shutterstock
Jalapeños are often the pepper of choice for adding a little spice to any dish — a fact that’s probably been true for millennia. The horticulture of chile peppers in general dates back to between 10,000 and 12,000 years ago, and they may even have been one of the first crops domesticated in America. Chile seeds have been found in 9,000-year-old Mexican archaeological sites, uncovered in 7,000-year-old caves in South America, and described in the myths and rituals of Indigenous cultures in Central and South America. But although there are many members of the Capsicum genus, only one eventually became the predominant pepper for nachos and tacos in the U.S. — and its namesake is the capital of the Mexican state of Veracruz, Xalapa (pronounced with an “h”).
Oops, incorrect!
It's a factAccording to Guinness World Records, the world’s hottest pepper is the Carolina Reaper, grown by Ed Currie of the PuckerButt Pepper Company in South Carolina. Currie has cultivated another pepper, “Pepper X,” that rates as even hotter, but its status remains unconfirmed by Guinness.
“Xalapa” comes from the Nahuatl (a language spoken by the Aztecs and other Mesoamerican groups) word xalli, meaning “sand,” and apan, meaning “spring,” and it was from this fertile “spring in the sand” that jalapeños first took root. Even today, residents of Xalapa are known as “Xalapeños,” which simply means “from Xalapa.” Although first domesticated in the Americas, jalapeños made the eastward journey across the Atlantic sometime in the mid-16th century, then spread worldwide through the vast expanse of Spanish and Portuguese empires. Today, their popularity comes in part from their versatility — they’re delicious fresh, roasted, or pickled. They’re also milder than some other popular peppers: Compared to habanero peppers (which, coincidentally, mean “from Havana”), jalapeños are 35 times less spicy, according to the Scoville scale used to measure spiciness. That helps make them the go-to pepper for any Mexican-inspired recipe, at least for those of us who can’t stand the heat.
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Jalapeños get their heat from a chemical compound called ______.
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Jalapeños get their heat from a chemical compound called capsaicin.
Chile peppers trick the body’s nervous system into experiencing heat.
Compounds in chile peppers bind to pain receptors in our tongue and stimulate heat sensors called polymodal nociceptors. Together, they send a chemical signal to the brain that roughly translates as “Pain! Hot!” The brain, thinking the body is experiencing an intense heat increase, springs into action by dilating blood vessels, increasing sweat production, and ramping up respiration — all biological strategies to help lower body temperature. The body also tries to flush out the fiery substance by increasing saliva production and ejecting these compounds through the nose. That’s why your nostrils might run when you chow down on a particularly spicy plate of pork vindaloo. Not all animals experience the same physiological reaction to spicy foods as humans, however. Birds, for example, have fewer taste buds, and don’t have the same pain receptors found in mammals, so our avian friends could munch on a habanero all day without a problem.
Darren Orf lives in Portland, has a cat, and writes about all things science and climate. You can find his previous work at Popular Mechanics, Inverse, Gizmodo, and Paste, among others.
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