Dragon's Breath (chili pepper)


Dragon's Breath is a chili pepper cultivar unofficially tested at 2.48 million Scoville units, a claim that would make it the second-hottest chili on record after Pepper X. Guinness World Records has different accredited results on the matter, showing the Carolina Reaper as the hottest in the world.

Development

The plant was developed in a collaboration between chili farmer Neal Price, NPK Technology, and Nottingham Trent University during a test of a special plant food and for its essential oil having potential as a skin anesthetic. The Dragon's Breath plant was later cultivated by breeder Mike Smith of St. Asaph, Denbighshire, Wales, who said that he had not planned to breed the chili for record heat, but rather was trying to grow an attractive pepper plant. Due to the nationality of the farmer who cultivated the pepper in Wales, it was named Dragon's Breath after the Welsh dragon. It was entered in the Plant of the Year contest at the 2017 Chelsea Flower Show where it was on the short list, but did not place.

Heat

The Dragon's Breath chili was tested at 2.48 million Scoville units, exceeding the 1.5 million of the Carolina Reaper, the hottest previously known chili, but was surpassed several months later by Pepper X at 3.18 million Scoville units.
Nottingham Trent University researchers suggest that the pepper's ability to numb the skin might make its essential oil useful as an anaesthetic for patients who cannot tolerate other anaesthetics, or in countries where they are too expensive. Experts at the university warned that swallowing one might cause death by choking or anaphylactic shock; one science writer noted that this was a standard warning that applied only to those with relevant allergies.