Chillies: Deadly Weapon

Filed in archive News on August 22, 2006

At home, we often joke about our "secret weapon" or "contraband" - dried red chillies we tend to take with us on trips in case we need to press them into service. I never took this literally. Who would have thought chillies will be used to help in a jail break!

Eighteen prisoners in an Indonesian jail mixed their own concoction of chilli water and sprayed it on guards. They then stole the keys and escaped. Fortunately, sixteen out of the eighteen fugitives have been caught.

A prison warden was quoted saying: "The is the first time chilli has been used to get out of this penitentiary".

Chillies have a chemical, capsaicin, that causes the burning sensation. A chilli pepper's 'hotness' is scientifically measured through Scoville heat units. This is named after Wilbur Scoville, the chemist who devised the system.