Peppers and Eggplant

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Peppers and Eggplant
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Peppers and Eggplant

• Pepper
• Origin and spread
• Species
• Hot pepper and hotness
• Sweet pepper
• Pepper problems
• Eggplant
• Characteristics
• Problems

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Peppers

• Most hot and mild peppers are the same species
  Capsicum _______
• Only common exception is tabasco pepper, which is
  Capsicum ________

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Peppers

• Capsicum _________
• Native to _______ and Central America
• Earliest evidence of cultivation is about
  _______ years ago
• Europe
• _________ found peppers during his first visit to
  the New World and introduced them in ________
• Hot types were used as a substitute for Peper
  nigrum (black pepper), an expensive import

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Pepper

• Sweet pepper, bell pepper, pimento
• Most popular in __________ climates
• Fruit
• Large and __________
• Red when ripe
• Cultivars exist that are yellow, orange, or
  purplish-black when mature
• Why are green bell peppers sold?

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Hot Peppers

• Hot peppers, chili peppers, _______ peppers
• Have gained an increased popularity
• Widely used in Mexico, Asia, and West Indies
• Rather _______ fruit
• Fruit usually red color when mature

Cayenne peppers
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Capsicum frutescens

• Widely used in SE Asia _______
• US most wide use in ________ sauce
• _________ pepper -first evidence of cultivation
  from coastal Peru
• Named after a region in __________

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Hotness of Peppers

• Factors influencing hotness
• _________
• Environmental conditions (______ and ______)
• ________ of fruit
• Fruit part
• Seed and associated ________ are the hottest

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Hotness of Peppers

• Capsaicin is ______ soluble
• Means that the compound can get into _____ on
  _____ and when you touch your ______ it can cause
  burning
• Rinse eyes with water
• What should you do to reduce the burning in your
  mouth?
• Eat ______ or ______ foods

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Hotness of Peppers

• How do we measure hotness?
• Using ________ Units
• Devised by chemist Wilbur ______ in 1912
• Based on diluting the hot material in a sugar
  _______ solution until no longer can taste
• Ranges from 0 for sweet bell peppers to
  ________ for habanero
• Purified capsaicin oil is around 16 million

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How hot is that pepper?

• Type Scoville units
• __________________________________________________
  
• Pimeto 0
• Santa Fe Grande 500 to 750
• Pablano 1,000 to 2,000
• Jalapeno 2,500 to 8,000
• Cayenne Tabasco 30,000 to 50,000
• Tepin 80,000 to 240,000
• Fatalii 125,000 to 325,000
• Scotch Bonnet 150,000 to 325,000
• Chocolate Habanero 200,000 to 385,000
• Rd Savina Habanero 350,000 to 577,000

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Horseradish and Wasabi

• Horseradish (Armoracia rusticana)
• In mustard family
• Wasabi (Wasabia japonica)
• In mustard family
• Pungency caused by allyl isothiocyanate (mustard
  oil)
• Stabilized by addition of vinegar or sealing in a
  tube
• Can desensitize to capsaicin
• Vapors irritate nasal passages more than tongue

Horseradish roots
Wasabi roots
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Onion pungency

• Slicing onion breaks cells which releases enzymes
  called alliinases that breaks down sulfides
• Generates sulfenic acids
• Unstable and breaks down to volatile gas
• Gas reaches eye and reacts with water to form
  sulfuric acid

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Pepper Problems

• Blossom end rot
• Is caused by in adequate ______ reaching _______
  end of fruit
• Generally related to uneven ______ levels

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Pepper

• Corn ________ can attack and bore into pepper
  fruit

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Eggplant or Aubergine (Solanum melongena)

• History
• Wild species native to ________
• First records of culture are from ______ in 5th
  century B.C.
• First introduced to England and were grown as an
  _________ with white colored fruits
• Early eggplant had white, egg-shaped fruit

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Eggplant

• Description
• A ______ plant up to 3 feet tall that is grown as
  an annual
• Flowers are deep ________

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Eggplant Problems

• Avoid
• Brown or ______ colored fruit over-mature
• ________ and seedy fruit are also over-mature
• Problems
• __________ beetles
• Colorado ________ beetle