Do hot pepper leaves always contain capsaicin?

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Shule
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Location: SW Idaho, USA

Do hot pepper leaves always contain capsaicin?

#1

Post: # 30865Unread post Shule
Sat Sep 19, 2020 12:13 am

I'm wondering if one can taste (not eat) the leaves of a C. annuum pepper plant before it flowers to determine if the fruit is going to be hot or not. Has anyone tried this already?

Yeah, I could just try it myself, and I might, but I haven't, yet.
Location: SW Idaho, USA
Climate: BSk
USDA hardiness zone: 6
Elevation: 2,260 feet

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habitat-gardener
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Location: central california, Sunset zone 14

Re: Do hot pepper leaves always contain capsaicin?

#2

Post: # 30876Unread post habitat-gardener
Sat Sep 19, 2020 11:03 am

What an interesting idea! If it was true, I wonder if you could detect the capsaicin early enough to see if your sweet-pepper seeds had crossed with a hot pepper, at seedling stage.

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pepperhead212
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Location: Woodbury, NJ

Re: Do hot pepper leaves always contain capsaicin?

#3

Post: # 30879Unread post pepperhead212
Sat Sep 19, 2020 12:00 pm

I've tasted the leaves before, since I read that they are used as seasonings, in some SE Asian areas. No heat in them, and nothing that I really liked, either raw or cooked, in annuum or chinense, so never really pursued it.
Woodbury, NJ zone 7a/7b

Clkeiper
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Re: Do hot pepper leaves always contain capsaicin?

#4

Post: # 30912Unread post Clkeiper
Sun Sep 20, 2020 7:25 am

mo heat in the leaves. I have tasted them to see if I can taste hot sensation or not if I am questioning the plant... never found any of it to be hot. I have a couple superhots I can go try it on already knowing they are hot but I suspect not as the deer and tobacco worms find them appealing to mow off.

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worth1
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Location: 25 miles southeast of Waterloo Texas

Re: Do hot pepper leaves always contain capsaicin?

#5

Post: # 30916Unread post worth1
Sun Sep 20, 2020 8:23 am

I found the question confusing as I know the leaves never contain it or if they do in such small amounts it is undetectable.
It is like the opium poppy the legal growing of them and manufacturer of the drug is done by harvesting the whole plant and extracting not just the top but all of it.
Worth
25 miles southeast of Waterloo Texas.

You can't argue with a closed mind.
You might as well be arguing with a cat.

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wykvlvr
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Location: Southeast Wyoming

Re: Do hot pepper leaves always contain capsaicin?

#6

Post: # 30999Unread post wykvlvr
Mon Sep 21, 2020 11:38 am

hmm so I guess my rather painful experience with hot pepper seedlings was an oddity or are Charleston Hots a different type of pepper?
Wyoming
Zone 5
Elevation : 6,063 ft
Climate : semi-arid
Avg annual rainfall = 16 inches

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