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U MOROK .....THE HOTTEST CHILLI

Chillies are the fruits of plants belonging to the genus Capsicum which originated from south-central region of South America. Columbus discovered it on his voyage to America and introduced it to Europe from where it subsequently spread to different parts of the world.

The popularity of the plant was such that in a short span of time it had become an indispensable ingredient of different cuisines of the world. In India, the European traders were the first to introduce it and today several cultivars are found in different parts of the country.

Chillies are used variously for different purposes because of their nutritional value, flavour, aroma, texture, hotness and colour. Chilli powders and oleoresin extracts of chilli are currently used in a wide assortment of foods, drugs, and cosmetics.

Chillies are also cultivated ornamentally especially for their brightly glossy fruits with a wide range of colours, shape and sizes. Besides the above-mentioned uses, chillies also have medicinal uses.

The medicinal value of chilli is well recognized today and is used for lowering blood pressure, to prevent cold hands and feet, for restoring stamina and vigour. Recently, a synergistic mixture of green tea with red chilli powder was found to be hundred times more effective in killing cancer cells than either by green tea or chilli powder alone.

Chillies also act as a safe analgesic and today chillies form the most active ingredient of most painkiller formulations used for treating many painful conditions such as post-herpetic neuralgia, diabetic neuropathy, osteoarthritis and mouth sores developing after chemotherapy or radiation. Thus, besides being an important spice, chilli also serves as a source of potential pharmaceutical drugs.

Another recent innovation of chilli use is the use of sprays containing chilli extracts as a non-lethal weapon. Such sprays are considered a friendly self-defence tool for women and are gaining popularity in different countries of the world.

Similarly, water canons containing chilli extracts are also becoming a favourite tool for modern day policing and are used for controlling the behaviour of miscreants and mob fury during riots.

There has always been a myth blaming spicy food containing hot chillies for causing haemorrhoids or pile and for causing ulcer in the stomach. However, recent studies with human patients has broken the myth and concluded that there is no scientific evidence that a spicy meal based on chillies may worsen symptoms of pile and that chilli use has no role in causing stomach ulcer.

On the other hand, chilli use was shown to have a protective effect against stomach ulcer and aspirin-induced injury of stomach lining by stimulating mucous secretion, which forms a protective covering of the stomach lining.

Most of the beneficial effects of chilli on human body are due to capsaicin, the main compound responsible for producing hotness in chillies. The amount of capsaicin present in a chilli is proportional to the hotness or heat level (expressed in Scoville Heat Units) of the chilli and chillies with high capsaicin content have higher corresponding Scoville Heat Units (SHU).

The capsaicin content and the corresponding SHU in a chilli sample are accurately measured by using high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and this method is used to identify the hot chilli cultivars which serve as potent source of capsaicin. In the process, a race was initiated to claim the title ?Hottest Chilli of the World?.

The first winner of the title was the 'Red Savina Habanero', a hybrid chilli developed in California. The hotness of this chilli was recorded at 5,77,000 SHU and was listed in the Guinness World Records as the World's Hottest Chilli.

However, further attempts to duplicate the results produced negative results and the average heat level of this chilli were recorded in the range of 1,50,000?3,00,000 SHU. This may be due to the fact that capsaicin content in a chilli is affected by several factors like stage of maturity of the fruit, soil water content and other environmental factors.

The part of the fruit used in analysis also greatly affects the results since capsaicin is mostly produced in the placenta tissue (region bearing seeds) in a chilli fruit and it is present in minimum amount in the seeds and the fruit wall.

The second claim for the title came in September, 2000 from a laboratory in Tezpur, Assam, reporting that a chilli named 'Nagahari' or 'Naga jolokia' is the new record holder. The reported chilli had a heat level of 8,55,000 SHU which was far much greater than the heat level of the 'Red Savina Habanero' and this report had attracted the attention of the international community leading to a search for the chilli in Assam.

Since the report provided no details about the chilli plant and the part of the fruit used for the analysis, the international community was becoming skeptical about the claim and attempts to establish the authenticity of the claim were in vain.

However, when the people of Manipur heard about the claim, there was widespread speculation about the identity of the chilli and they could not help suspecting it to be the well-known indigenous fiery chilli, 'U morok'.

Therefore, keeping in mind the sentiments associated with the issue, we measured the heat levels of different samples of 'U morok' taking whole fruits including the seeds and fruit walls following the generally accepted procedure.

The average heat level of 'U morok' samples were found to be in the range of 2,00,000-3,50,000 SHU and the results could be expected at a much higher level if only the placenta tissues were analysed. Moreover, since several other factors affect the capsaicin content in a chilli sample it was difficult to tape the highest level.

In the meantime, another report popped up in the media in the summer of 2005 about a new champion, 'Dorset Naga' with a whopping 9,23,000 SHU. This time, full details were available on the internet about the morphology and the origin of the chilli.

The line-up for World's Hottest Chilli

The chilli was a hybrid chilli developed by a couple in UK by using a sample collected from a Bangladeshi community of Britain who called it 'Naga Morich' as they believed it to have reached Bangladesh from Nagaland.

This time, our suspicions further grew as 'Dorset Naga' had a great deal of similarity with 'U morok'. However, sufficient data was not available to either remove our suspicion or convert it into a fact but the marathon was continuing with great speed.

Then came the latest record holder of the title, 'Bhut Jolokia' in February 2007 with a breathtaking hotness of 10,01,304 SHU and it replaced the 'Red Savina Habanero' in the Guinness World Records as the hottest of all spices. The claim was announced by Dr. P. W. Bosland of New Mexico State University who had been trailing the source of Tezpur chilli all this while.

The sample used by Dr. Bosland for the analysis was obtained by growing a sample provided by a friend who visited Assam. Simultaneously, another report was making news in the media about a chilli named 'Bih Jolokia' grown by a private farm owner in Assam claiming that HPLC analyses of the chilli sample in 2004 had recorded a maximum of 10,41,427 SHU.

By this time, the description and the source of the chillies were significantly pointing towards the possibility of 'U morok' being the so-called hottest chilli of the world.

Later, an internet article authored by Dr. Bosland cited a correspondence with a representative of the private firm based in Assam clarifying that 'Bhut Jolokia', 'Bih Jolokia', 'Naga Morich', 'Nagahari' and 'Naga Jolokia' are actually the names used in different parts of Assam for the same chilli found in northeastern India.

It further stated that the chilli is known by the name 'Raja Mirch' or 'King Chilli' in Nagaland and Manipur and this was the name used by the people of Nagaland for the chilli we call 'U morok' in Manipur. This gave us the last straw to convert our suspicion into reality.

Who's the real winner?

Today, after a careful study of all the claims, we can clearly see that the proud holder of the title ?The World's Hottest Chilli? is none other than 'U morok', the indigenous fiery chilli of Manipur.

This also seems to be the main reason why the search for the hottest 'Nagahari' chilli in Assam always ended in vain. In Manipur, anyone could have easily found it in fresh or dried form in most market outlets of the State at any time of the year and finding a plant would have not been that difficult.

However, after all these claims, one can easily get the seeds and other products of the chilli from a large number of companies located in different parts of the globe through the internet. In other words, another race has been initiated for the sale of the chilli.

Thus, the current scenario presents a serious issue and calls for our immediate attention to provide geographical indication to the World's Hottest Chilli.

The time has also come for us to take pride in our precious possession and take up every possible step for the conservation and increasing the production potential of this elite chilli cultivar.