Carolina Reaper

The Carolina Reaper (Capsicum chinense) was the world's hottest chilli pepper from 2013 to October 2023, when Guinness World Records certified its succession by Pepper X [A]. Both peppers were bred by Ed Currie at PuckerButt Pepper Company, Fort Mill, South Carolina. The Reaper averages 1.6–2.2 million Scoville Heat Units, with individual fruits sometimes peaking above 3.18 million.

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Chemistry

The heat is capsaicin (CAS 404-86-4, C₁₈H₂₇NO₃) and its close cousin dihydrocapsaicin — vanilloid-type alkaloids that bind to the TRPV1 receptor in mammalian nociceptors, producing the sensation of burning without actual tissue damage at culinary concentrations [B]. The fruity-sweet top of the Reaper before the heat arrives is a familiar Capsicum chinense aroma — esters and pyrazines, similar to habanero — but the chemistry is interesting: capsaicin is not volatile at room temperature and so does not 'smell' hot in the strict olfactory sense. The burn is on contact, not in the air.

In a fragrance

Carolina Reaper has no commercial perfumery extract — capsaicin would be a skin irritant at any meaningful concentration. The note appears in fragrance only as a conceptual reference: a few experimental compositions invoke the pepper as an idea, built from pyrazine-fruity-tropical accords for the aroma and from peppery materials (pink pepper, shishito reconstruction) for the dryness, without actually using capsaicin.

Sources & Notes

[A] Guinness World Records — Carolina Reaper certified hottest chilli pepper 2013–2023; Pepper X succeeded in October 2023 (avg ~2.69M SHU).

[B] PubChem CID 1548943 — capsaicin, CAS 404-86-4, C₁₈H₂₇NO₃. TRPV1 receptor agonist. pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/1548943.