Chillis, or “chile peppers,” the fruits of small
shrubs native to South America, are the most
widely grown spice in the world. Their active
ingredient, the spectacularly pungent
chemical capsaicin, protects the seeds of the
chilli fruit, and appears to be a chemical
repellant aimed specifically at mammals.
Birds, which swallow the fruits whole and
disperse the seeds widely, are immune to
capsaicin; mammals, whose teeth grind up the
fruit and destroy the seeds, are pained by it.
It’s a wonderfully perverse achievement for
our mammal species to have fallen in love
with this anti-mammalian weapon and spread
the chillis much further than any bird ever
did!
The success of the chilli has been
remarkable. World production and
consumption are now some 20 times that of
the other major pungent spice, black pepper. It
is ubiquitous in Central and South America,
Southeast Asia, India, the Middle East, and
barry
(Barry)
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