Calories in Peppers, serrano, seeded

What makes peppers so powerful?

The serrano pepper's name comes from the Spanish 'sierra,' meaning mountain, reflecting its origins in the mountainous regions of Puebla and Hidalgo, Mexico. Despite being smaller than the more familiar jalapeño—typically just 5 to 8 centimeters long—serranos measure 10,000 to 25,000 on the Scoville Heat Unit scale, compared to a jalapeño's 2,500 to 8,000. The common practice of seeding hot peppers to reduce heat works not because the seeds themselves are spicy, but because the real source of capsaicin is the placenta—the pale, spongy tissue lining the pepper's interior that holds the seeds in place. Capsaicin is synthesized in gland cells on the placenta's surface and accumulates in blisters there. When you scrape out the seeds, you inevitably remove much of this placental tissue, lowering the pepper's effective heat. The seeds, which contain no capsaicin-producing glands, taste hot only because they brush against the capsaicin-laden placenta during growth. Serranos belong to Capsicum annuum, the same species as bell peppers and jalapeños, and like all capsicum peppers, they originated in the Americas.