“Nowadays many people breed peppers specifically to make them as hot as possible. The record holder at the time of writing is the Carolina Reaper at 2.2 million Scovilles. Capsaicin in pure form has 16 million Scovilles. A purified version of a Moroccan spurge plant – a cousin of the innocuous common garden flowering euphorbia – has been measured at 16 billion Scovilles.”

“Nowadays many people breed peppers specifically to make them as hot as possible. The record holder at the time of writing is the Carolina Reaper at 2.2 million Scovilles. Capsaicin in pure form has 16 million Scovilles. A purified version of a Moroccan spurge plant – a cousin of the innocuous common garden flowering euphorbia – has been measured at 16 billion Scovilles.”

— Bill Bryson