Peppers have been used for defense purposes for thousands of years. The use of a powder made from hot peppers to blind one’s enemies has been documented in ancient Japan, China, and India, where cayenne peppers were the most frequently used variety. In Japan, this method was known as a Metsubishi box; it was used by the police, who would blow the chili powder into the eyes of convicted criminals.

With the advent of modern, aerosol-can pepper sprays in the 1960s and 1970s, many of these older methods of using peppers for self defense died out as they were surpassed by more powerful dispersion methods. Because the chemical in hot peppers, capsaicin, was isolated in the 1960s, today’s pepper sprays tend to be many times hotter than the weapons made centuries ago by grinding peppers into powder.

Still, natural peppers continue to be developed for use in defense sprays all over the world. One of the newest pepper-based weapons comes out of India, and is based on the hottest known chili pepper in the world. Plans involve using these peppers to make military-grade hand grenades carrying pepper-based tear gas that will be used to immobilize suspects and dispel riots. Plans are also in place to use the same pepper to produce police-grade sprays to control and disperse mobs, as well as self defense sprays for women to carry. While still in development, Indian scientists say the chili-based weapon will immobilize but not kill targets, working in a similar manner as regular pepper sprays but with a much more concentrated chemical.

Developed by the Indian military, this weapon is made of the “ghost chili” or “bhut jolokia,” a thumb-sized hot pepper. Listed by Guinness World Records as the spiciest chili in the world, the pepper is grown in northeast India where it is used to flavor dishes and cure stomach problems. Other uses for the ghost pepper include inducing perspiration as a remedy for summer heat; the smell is also known to keep wild elephants and other animals away. Perhaps surprisingly, this potent pepper is regularly eaten in India, although there are also reports of westerners unfamiliar with the pepper being sent to the hospital after attempting to eat one.

The heat of spicy peppers is rated in Scoville Heat Units. Tabasco sauce is 2,500 to 5,000 SHU, while jalapenos measure up to 8,000. The Bhut jolokia has more than a million Scoville units. Said to be powerful enough to stop a charging elephant, one test pegged the three-inch-long pepper at 1,041,427 Scoville Heat Units, twice as hot as the next-hottest tested pepper.

Unlike most modern pepper sprays, these weapons will be based on natural peppers, rather than lab-created chemicals. Still, they are so strong that it is believed that the smell of the pepper will be enough to scare terrorists out of their hideouts. Like commercial pepper sprays, this notoriously hot pepper is non-toxic and does not cause long-term symptoms, despite the painful affects of ingesting or inhaling it. The Bhut jolokia contains extremely high levels of capsaicin, the chemical that is synthesized for commercial pepper sprays.

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Category: Culture
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