Chili tasting hands on workshop 36c3

File:Chiltepins.jpg

Chiltepin chillies

Several chillies

Chillies (capsicum sativa) is a plant which evolved to be eaten by birds, as birds lack the receptor to capsaicin, the stuff which makes chillies hot. The original chilli plant, chiltepin, grows the fruit on top to be better accessible to birds (see picture on the right).

Humans are, of course, sensitive to capsaicin. This does not prevent some of them eating the fruits, on the contrary. Chillies originate from the Americas, but were quickly adopted throughout the old word. The adoption was so quick that a century after the discoveries of the Americas, chillies were already considered to be part of the traditional staple diet in several part of the old world, to the bewilderment of ethnologists.