# Anything hotter than capsaicin **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 24, 2005, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anything-hotter-than-capsaicin/309672 "2005-06-24T15:16:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Bippy\_the\_Beardless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ac8455/32.png) [@Bippy\_the\_Beardless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bippy_the_Beardless)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2005, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anything-hotter-than-capsaicin/309672/1 "2005-06-24T15:16:30Z")
Well I guess hotness is somewhat objective, but since there exists manythings sweeter than sugar, I wondered if anyone had found a chemical hotter (spicier) than capsaicin? A google search for “hotter than capsaicin” gives two results mentioning 1000 times hotter than capsaicin but neither can be accessed to find out what substance they are describing. ---
**Author:** ![MacGyverInSeattle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/958977/32.png) [@MacGyverInSeattle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacGyverInSeattle)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2005, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anything-hotter-than-capsaicin/309672/2 "2005-06-24T15:32:46Z")
I used to work with a chemical engineer who was really into hot foods and started his own internet hot sauce shop. I learned that capsaicin has a very special property of triggering human nerves to feel heat without destroying them. He found many hot sauces that were indeed hotter than capsaicin but they all left burns, one time so bad he could not eat anything other than cold milk products for several days. So maybe the question you might be asking is there anything hotter than capsaicin that is edible and doesn’t kill or maim you? So far as he knew, no. But in my experience try putting some Icy-hot or Ben-gay in your mouth, they are not edible but they are hot. ---
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2005, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anything-hotter-than-capsaicin/309672/3 "2005-06-24T15:52:59Z")
> [@Bippy the Beardless](#): > > A google search for “hotter than capsaicin” gives two results mentioning 1000 times hotter than capsaicin but neither can be accessed to find out what substance they are describing. Both of those results seem to be reprints of the same article on two separate pay sites. The same article can be found gratis [here](http://www.medreviews.com/pdfs/articles/RIU_41_1.pdf) on [MedReviews.com](http://MedReviews.com) (link is to a PDF). Here is the pertinent quote (about dead center of pg 7 of the PDF): > [@](#): > > **Resiniferatoxin (RTX)** is a much more potent sensory antagonist than capsaicin. It is approximately a thousand times “hotter” than capsaicin, based on the Scoville Heat Scale. Like capsaicin, it possesses vanilloid receptor agonist activity, resulting in desensitization, but RTX acts without the potent neuronal excitatory effect of capsaicin and therefore elicits less discomfort. ---
**Author:** ![gaucho](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c67d28/32.png) [@gaucho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaucho)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2005, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anything-hotter-than-capsaicin/309672/4 "2005-06-24T16:26:02Z")
> [@Bippy the Beardless](#): > > Well I guess hotness is somewhat objective, but since there exists manythings sweeter than sugar, I wondered if anyone had found a chemical hotter (spicier) than capsaicin? A google search for “hotter than capsaicin” gives two results mentioning 1000 times hotter than capsaicin but neither can be accessed to find out what substance they are describing. Isn’t stevia supposedly sweeter than sugar? A tangential question: What makes mustard and horseradish “hot”? ---
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2005, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anything-hotter-than-capsaicin/309672/5 "2005-06-24T16:29:37Z")
> [@gaucho](#): > > What makes mustard and horseradish “hot”? [For horseradish and some types of mustard](http://www.diet-and-health.net/Naturopathy/Horseradish.html): > [@](#): > > When unbroken, it is inodorous, but exhales a characteristic pungent odour when scraped or bruised, and has a hot, biting taste, combined with a certain sweetness. It has properties very similar to Black Mustard seeds, containing Sinigrin, a crystalline glucoside, which is decomposed in the presence of water by Myrosin, an enzyme found also in the root, the chief produce being the volatile oil Allyl, isothiocyanate, which is identical with that of Black Mustard seed. This volatile oil, which is easily developed by scraping the root when in a fresh state, does not pre-exist in the root, the reaction not taking place in the root under normal conditions, because the Sinigrin and Myrosin exist in separate cells, and it is only the bruising of the cells that brings their contents together. ---
**Author:** ![Bippy\_the\_Beardless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ac8455/32.png) [@Bippy\_the\_Beardless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bippy_the_Beardless)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2005, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anything-hotter-than-capsaicin/309672/6 "2005-06-24T16:43:47Z")
“Vanilloid receptor agonist” gives a lot of sources 🙂 including [http://www.komabiotech.co.kr/product/neuro/category/vanilloids.htm](http://www.komabiotech.co.kr/product/neuro/category/vanilloids.htm) . Seem to suggest Resiniferatoxin (RTX) is pretty much the hottest.