Re: [CH] measuring heat
Michael Bailes (frgntgar@ozemail.com.au)
Sat, 23 Jan 1999 17:06:02 +1100
At 7:05 PM -0700 21/1/99, Sunny Conley wrote:
>Hi Judy and all chileheads:
>According to Dave DeWitt in his book The Whole Chile Pepper Book, "the precise
>amount of capsaicin present in chiles can only be measured by a specialized
>laboratory procedure known as high pressure liquid chromatagraphy (HPLC),
>sometimes called high-performance liquid chromotography." Also, "home cooks
>wishing ot test their chiles will need to buy an Altex MOdel 322 Liquid
>Chromatography equipped with a solvent programmer and dual pumps."
>Unfortunately, and to my knowledge, he doesn't mention where one can be
>purchased. However, I suggest emailing him through the fiery foods web site.
>I'm sure he'd be more than willing to help out. Sunny Conley
>http://www.chileknights.com
SoMe of the Many problems with this sort of analysis is
1. The machine has to be calibrated.
That means you need some pure capacacin to start with.
There are five or more capacacins that give the heat in chilli so because
there are rarely found in Chemical Co merce they are rarely tested. (I
would love to know if the Savina has been tested on all of theM)
2 The "peaks" have to be interpreted. The HPLC a Machine doesn't just give
you a print out list of the Cheimicals it gives you wriggly lines. You have
to decide what these are on the basis of your experience your calibration
and other peoples tests
(Is this Making sense?)
Anyway its all Very unimportant anyhow except if you are producing personal
defence sprays or trying to
Make an analogue of capacacin. How uch Capacacin is in one chilli at one
tiM proves nothing.
.
Michael Bailes.
Herbarist
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