Scharf,schärfer,Capsaicin!

Capsaicin, the spiciest hot compound known, is a non‐basic alkaloid of chili peppers, belonging to the genus Capsicum. With 16 million units it is on top of the Scoville scale, a measure for the degree of spicy heat within a food. Capsicum, capsaicin and this scale have already been discussed in this journal in 2010. After botanical and culinary aspects, now a method for the separation of the main capsaicinoids, capsaicin and dihydrocapsaicin, is reported which makes use of the complexation of capsaicin by Ag+ ions on an AgNO₃ impregnated silica gel column. All analytical spectra were recorded. They are reproduced either in the main part or in the supporting information and discussed in detail. Calculations of the structure are compared with data of an own x‐ray analysis of capsaicin. The project is a follow up of the recent book “Classics in Spectroscopy” by S. Berger und D. Sicker (Wiley‐VCH 2009).