Chilli Facts

ABC News Item October 10th 2005

Last Update: Monday, October 10, 2005. 10:59am (AEST) Health benefits: The authors of the study hope more people will include chilli in their diets. (Reuters) Chilli conditions ideal for a good night's sleep A pilot study in Tasmania has found people might sleep better if they regularly eat chillies. Researchers at the University of Tasmania have spent the past 18 months studying the potential health benefits of chillies on a group of 10 volunteers in Launceston. Some in the group were given 15 grams of chilli each day, while others did not have any. The results were compared to see what effect it had on the participant's health and well-being. Associate Professor at the School of Life Sciences Dominic Geraghty says the results were promising. "Chilli consumption may improve your sleep and, of course, the quality of your sleep very much also influences your cardiovascular health," he said. "We also found it appears to have very small effects on insulin levels, glucose levels. "So all of these small things appear to have a bit of benefit for your cardiovascular and everything else that you're supposed to be doing to keep you fit and healthy, it may help." Associate Professor Geraghty hopes the study will encourage more people to include chilli in their diet. "Chilli might be a neutroceutical, in other words a naturally occurring agent that we can just take on a daily basis in a small amount and it may actually benefit our cardiovascular health," he said.

THE WEEKEND AUSTRALIAN MARCH 18-19 2006

Anti Cancer Council Facts

A few general warnings

• Whenever you are preparing fresh chillies make sure that you wash your hands before you go to the toilet and also afterwards offcourse!
• We strongly recommend gloves while preparing fresh habanero chillies (or picking and harvesting them). We also recommend wearing a safety helmet and goggles as well!!
• Be careful for the fumes coming out of the pots when using fresh chillies in any stir-fry or other cooking.

Is eating chilli healty?

Eating chilli and your health

Herewith we would like to summarize a few health facts. Recent years there has been a lot of research and every year research finds out more about the healthy benefits of the chilli.

Chilli will clear your sinuses. After eating chillies your nose starts to run. Therefore great to fight off the flu or even hay fever?

Hay Fever

This is what one of our customers found out after eating our hot habanero paste Turbo Supercharge. He has had hay fever all his life. Up until he reached the hottest chilli in the world (Habanero) and after eating that for a while his hay fever has gone.

Flu

Make sure that you start straight when feeling the first symptoms of the flu coming...

Have your meals with: minimum of 4 cloves of fresh garlic, a nice chunk of ginger and a hot chilli! Do not cook the garlic, ginger and chilli but put it fresh on top of your cooked dish, say a nice Singapore Noodles. You start sweating and it clears the sinuses. Repeat until fully recovered.

There has been a lot of research done about all the health benefits of the chilli and so far more than 50 common ailments are said to be cured by eating chilli. In the old days it was believed and used to fight of scurvy. Also used to prevent or cure: rheumatism, arteriosclerosis, toothache, stomach-ache, epilepsy, asthma, varicose veins and malaria.

They are tonic and antiseptic. Stimulate your digestive system and if rubbed on areas of your skin it will stimulate the blood flow and for these reasons have been used also to treat sprains, rheumatic pain in the muscles of the lower back (lumbago) or chilblains (sore or swollen skin) Be careful when using because it may cause blistering or dermatitis when used over a longer period of time!

Chillies do speed up your metabolism and have more vitamin C in them than any other fruit. (Yes chilli is a fruit) Also be noted that the hotter the chilli the more vitamin C they contain. Apparently the red variety of the habanero chilli from Mexico contains more than 350x the amount of vitamin C than the average orange!

You can use chillies to repel your garden pest or to keep barnacles off boats. The oils in the chilli (oleoresins which are the concentrated extract or oils found in chillies) are used into the base of this special paint for boats. These chilli oils keep the barnacles at bay.

Memory Lane of the Chilli

A brief history of the chilli over the past few thousand years ..

The chilli originates from South America where it has been used, grown and loved for the past few thousand of years. Mostly grown in the wild and later slowly cultivated.

The only reason that we, the rest of the world, also know them is that Columbus tried to reach India and its herbs and spices via a different route.

A few (500) years ago Portugal was having a monopoly in pepper trade, which was at that time the most precious spice in the world! To break that monopoly and also because the King of Spain got fed up with the Portuguese he sent Columbus to look and find a western route to the spices of India.

He discovered (South) America and brought some chillies home. And because he thought he had found a different route to India he called these chillies peppers believing them to be related to the plant, which produces black pepper.

.. and with that he started the confusion about the naming of the chilli. Also see How do you spell chilli, chili, chile & Chile?

After introducing the chilli in Spain the spreading of the chilli over the rest of the world (Eastern Europe, Africa and ofcourse Asia) went very fast because everybody loved the flavour of the mild to wild tasting pepper. Today the chilli has become an essential part of cooking all over the world. And therefore Chillies are the most popular spice in the world, from mild to wild!

Chilli and what does it mean?

A short list of some of the main/important chilli terms used and abused.

Adobo sauce

Tomato based sauce mainly used with a chipotle chilli

Aji

South American term for chilli

Capsicum

Family name for chilli. A kind of class having common characteristics. In Australia used as other word for paprika pepper which is the same family as the chilli.

Chilli

Anything consisting of the capsicum plant or the fruit from the plant. Capsicum is the name for the capsicum plant

Chipotle

Smoking any chilli to preserve it. This is then called chipotle chilli. Most of the times the chilli used for this are the Jalapeno chilli because of its thick skin. (Normal drying will make it rot...that's why smoking is a better way) Best way to smoke is with hickory wood to give that distinctive flavour to your chilli.

Capsaicin

The working ingredient that gives the chilli its heat. Be careful how to pronounce otherwise it will sound like capsicum. Kap-say-kin.

Paprika

Any non-pungent (non heat) chilli. E.g. capsicum (Australia) / Paprika pepper (rest of the World).

Piripiri, piri-piri (molho de piri-piri)

Piripiri is Swahilli for Chilli (meaning pepper, pepper). Originally brought back to Europe by Columbus it was introduced into the Portugees colonies of Angola and Mozambique. There it was cultivated and grown extensively and named by the locals Piripiri. From there it made its way back to Portugeese cuisine but kept its newly received name.

Pungency

This is the heat in a chilli

Ristra

This is a long string of (dried) whole chillies and is manly used for storage or to decorate your home with. A good way of preserving the chillies with the thinner skin types.

The HOTTEST Chilli in the world?

Searching for the new "World's Hottest Chile"

The Hottest Chile Pepper in the World, Proven!

Harald Zoschke writes the definitive story on the search for the hottest chile pepper in the world, measuring more than one million Scoville Heat Units. It was a five-year quest, but finally the 'Naga Jolokia' gets its due as the hottest pepper on the planet. See the Special Report here.

New New New

The Chilli Factory is currently growing the latest Jolokia chilli, the hottest chilli in the world. We have seeded and planted the first couple of hundred Jolokia plants August 2008 and in March 2009 we introduced the new mega hot paste. Heat level: 14/10!

See More Pictures Here

New name for our Jolokia paste is:

Devil's Delirium "Oh my God…it's HOT!

At this moment, due to the small volumes of the Jolokia chilli, there will be a limited release: this means that for now this new product will NOT be available at shops but only on-line and/or at some shows / markets. At this moment in time we have NOT enough to supply all our distributors and shops (unfortunately)

Due to the massive demand we cannot keep up with volumes and therefore are extending our hothouse and double-triple our volumes for next season. But… we are extending our hothouse as we speak. See photos below. We are going to double-triple volumes of chillies to keep up with demands. Keep an eye on our website the coming months. We are working hard to pump up the volume.

Stay tuned to our website for updates about our progress..........

See More Pictures Here