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1Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problems2Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitches3Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsGoogle’s interactive Doodle honoring Wilbur Scoville launched on January 22, 2016, marking what would have been his 151st birthday. Scoville is remembered for the pepper-pungency test that gave rise to the Scoville scale. Its original method relied on trained tasters and serial dilution; modern laboratories can measure capsaicin with instruments such as high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC).
Who was Wilbur Scoville?
Wilbur Scoville was an American chemist born in 1865 in Bridgeport, Connecticut. Google’s Doodle archive describes him as a researcher, professor of pharmacology and officer of the American Pharmaceutical Association. He is best known for developing the organoleptic test used to measure pepper pungency.
The Doodle’s title was “Wilbur Scoville’s 151st Birthday.” Google credited Olivia When as its Doodler and presented the work as an interactive game. When described the concept as a comic fighting game; the archive recounts her process of storyboarding, prototyping, creating character art and animating the scenes. Google’s Doodle archive includes her account and the interactive experience.
Google also notes that Scoville wrote The Art of Compounding and says the book includes an early mention of milk as an antidote to pepper heat. That is Google’s description of the book, rather than an independently established claim that it was the first such mention.
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What is the Scoville scale?
The Scoville scale expresses the pungency of chili peppers in Scoville Heat Units (SHU). The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) says pharmacologist Wilbur Scoville invented it in 1912. The scale is named for its creator, but SHU does not measure literal temperature: it represents how much dilution was needed in the original test before tasters could no longer detect pepper heat.
The burning sensation comes from capsaicinoids, a family of compounds in hot peppers. Capsaicin is the most abundant capsaicinoid in hot peppers, according to NIST. It activates heat-sensing receptors, making the mouth feel as if it is burning even though its temperature has not actually risen. NIST explains the chemistry and measurement in “How Do You Measure the ‘Heat’ of a Pepper?”
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How did Scoville’s original test work?
- Extract the pepper compounds. Capsaicinoids were extracted from the pepper sample.
- Dilute the extract. The extract was diluted with sugar water in successive steps.
- Have trained tasters assess it. Tasters sampled the dilution to determine whether they could still detect heat.
- Record the threshold. The number of dilutions required until the heat was no longer detectable determined the result: more dilutions meant a higher SHU rating.
This was a sensory test, not a thermometer reading or a direct count of how hot a pepper feels to every person. Because detection depends on human tasters, the result could vary with the tasting panel as well as with the pepper sample.
How hot are different peppers?
NIST gives the following comparison values. They are reported ranges or values in its explainer, not guarantees for every pepper of a variety. NIST notes that growing temperature, soil and location can affect pepper heat.
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| Pepper | Reported heat |
|---|---|
| Bell pepper | 0 SHU |
| Poblano | 1,000–1,500 SHU |
| Jalapeño | 2,000–8,000 SHU |
| Thai pepper | 50,000–100,000 SHU |
| Ghost pepper | 855,000–1,041,427 SHU |
| Pepper X | 3.2 million SHU |
These figures, presented by NIST without a separate publication year for the underlying pepper measurements, are useful for comparing the examples but should not be treated as fixed values for every individual pepper.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Is the Scoville scale still used?
Scoville’s original organoleptic test and modern laboratory measurement are different methods. NIST describes high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) as a modern analytical approach that separates, identifies and quantifies components in a sample, including capsaicin. It avoids relying on a tasting panel to detect pungency. Modern measurements may still be expressed in SHU, but that does not mean an instrument is repeating Scoville’s original human-taster test.
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