When Christopher Columbus and his crew reached the Caribbean, they were the first Europeans to encounter Capsicum. caballeroi landraces and arivivis with small elongated fruits including C. Bolivian consumers distinguish two basic forms: ulupicas, species with small round fruits including C. The largest diversity of wild Capsicum peppers is consumed in Bolivia. Peru has the highest variety of cultivated Capsicum diversity because it is a center of diversification where varieties of all five domesticates were introduced, grown, and consumed in pre-Columbian times. They were one of the first self-pollinating crops cultivated in Mexico, Central America, and parts of South America. Origins of cultivating chili peppers have been traced to east-central Mexico some 6,000 years ago, although, according to research by the New York Botanical Garden press in 2014, chili plants were first cultivated independently across different locations in the Americas including highland Bolivia, central Mexico, and the Amazon. They are one of the oldest cultivated crops in the Americas. History Origins Ĭapsicum plants originated in modern-day Bolivia and have been a part of human diets since about 7,500 BC.

In 2019, the world's production of raw green chili peppers amounted to 38 million tons, with China producing half. This led to a wide variety of cultivars, including the annuum species, with its glabriusculum variety and New Mexico cultivar group, and the species of baccatum, chinense, frutescens, and pubescens.Ĭultivars grown in North America and Europe are believed to all derive from Capsicum annuum, and have white, yellow, red or purple to black fruits. After the Columbian Exchange, many cultivars of chili pepper spread around the world, used for both food and traditional medicine. While chili peppers are (to varying degrees) pungent or 'spicy', there are other varieties of capsicum such as bell peppers, which generally provide additional sweetness and flavor to a meal rather than 'heat'.Ĭhili peppers are believed to have originated somewhere in Central or South America and were first cultivated in Mexico. Capsaicin and related compounds known as capsaicinoids are the substances giving chili peppers their intensity when ingested or applied topically. Chili peppers are widely used in many cuisines as a spice to add 'heat' to dishes. Chili peppers (also chile, chile pepper, chilli pepper, or chilli ), from Nahuatl chīlli ( Nahuatl pronunciation: ( listen)), are varieties of the berry-fruit of plants from the genus Capsicum, which are members of the nightshade family Solanaceae, cultivated for their pungency.

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