Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1919-10-03
HOTTEST OF HOT STUFF
Noted Scientist ISolaies The Pep
Of Pepper.
DISCOVERY or NOTED IMPORTANCE

Tongue Burns Like Red Hot Poker
Possible Practical Use of New Dis
1 ,eovery Not Yet Figured Out; But
That Will Regulate Itself.
Frederick ]. Haskin.
The hottest stun on, earth-the con-
stituent of red pepper which makes II
bnrn your tongue--has been Isolated
:. analyzed and put up in a little pot'ie
Z by DIR. E. K. Nelson, OF the bureau OIL
chemistry. lfst
DIR. Nelson may be said to have
Z taken the pep out. of pepper ana
thereby to have produced pure pep,
4 This remarkable substance pears
!; about the same relation to red Pep
DER that saccharin does to sugar. Il
has the essential quality Of pepper
Z the burning quality-intensified about
: 500 times, just as sacckarin has the
sweetness of sugar greatly intensified.
: In soldiers ratiens, a very. smaii
tablet sof saccharini does the work OF
many pounds of sugar. A little cap
? saicin, as it is called, will dosthe work
of tons of red pepper. 1t will mol
give the faint flavor which pepper
derives, from its essential oil. butt 1t
will give the sense of holiness with
< the most astonishing generosity. a
mere pinch of capsaicin would make a
4 whole kettle OF soup so hot that no
one could eat it.,
The strength of this substance is
almost, incredible. Dr.. Nelson has
about two ounces Of it. He calcu.
<lates that one of those ounces. If sa'fh'
GENTLY diluted, would be enough TO
put peppery taste on the torsue Of
every man, woman and child the
United States.
DR.. Nelson has a solution OF cap
saicin ip alcohol, which consists o.
one part of the hot stuff to 100 thou
sand. parts of alcohol. Waving the
prohibition law in the interests OF
science. the doctor allowed a news
paperman to touch with his tongue
single drop of the precious fluid on
fake of glass. 1t may be stated that
IL this concoction were placed in gem
Heral circulation, 1t would breathe a
new meaning into the term firewater.
This substance was isolated Ions
ago by a British chemist named
Thresh, who swallowed some of 1t in
a capsule, and had one of the most
intense and violent stomach aches in
the history of science, His discov-
cry attracted some Jattention at the
time but was soon forgotten. 1t re-
manned for DR.. Nelson TO analyze the
substance. He not only did that, pro-
ducing the acid and the base of which
il is made, but he also made syntheti-
calIy a substance almost exactly like
II.
The doctor had some interesting
adventures with his discovery. From
working in his laboratory with the
fumes of capsaicin, his face became SO
red and irritated that he had to give
up shaving for a while. A little OF
the vapor got into his eyes, ard he
was temporarily blinded. But he
found that the substance has abso-
lutely no permanent effects. His eyes
in due course returned to normal, and
we're no worse for the experience. His
whiskers were unharmed.
BY way of trying out the effect OF
capsaicin vapor, the doctor placed a
very small pinch of it on piece OF
metal, and heated it until it vaporized
He then opened the door Of his labora-
tory and drove the fumes out by
placing an electric fan behind them
He himself remained behind the cleo
trio fan. Across the hall a confer
ence was going on, and it presently
testified to the power of capsaicin by
exploding into a terrific series OF
sneezes and coughs.
But the doctor got an even more
dramatic illustration of the strength OF
this remarkable substance quite un-
Intentionally A minute quantity OF
capsaicin had crystallized on bit OF
filter paper, and this piece of paper
the doctor burned, forgetting that
there was capsaicin on it. The vapor
blew out the building and had much
the same effect on the occupants of
that floor as fire alarm. When they
were all out, man from the floor
below came up 10 see what was the
trouble, but. he did not stay long. For
some time there was nothing done in
that part of the building.
You might think, from all this that
capsaicin would make splendid fumi-
CANT to rid a house of insect pests, but
this does not seem to be the case
The doctor says that he has just as
many cockroaches in his office as he
ever had, and that theS presence OF
capsaicin Yapor in the air does not
seem to annoy them at all.
In order to produce this substance
the doctor took so pounds of the hot
test red pepper he could get and put
it through a number of chemical proc
esses, finally eliminating everything
but this one substance. The sub
stance consists of tiny, clear white
crystals, not unlike little diamonds. II
is literally impossible to do anything
with the substance in a pure state. A
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