A word to all the daredevils out there: If the chili pepper has ‘Reaper’ attached to its name, stay away from it unless you want a certain death. Whoever named it the Carolina Reaper was obviously alluding to its connection to the Grim Reaper, and for a good reason! The red-hot pepper is so fiery that it is known to cause a variety of side effects, some of which can be so serious, you’d end up in the emergency room. The latest instance is of an unsuspecting US man who ate the godforsaken chili pepper and ended up in the hospital with thunderclap headaches, a very severe type of headache, usually associated with brain bleeds. Here's a table to give you an idea where the Carolina Reaper stands on the Scoville scale, a measuring technique for pungency.

The Carolina Reaper is only second in comparison to pure capsaicin as far as heat is concerned.

The Carolina Reaper is the hottest chili pepper known to man, which is almost 400 times hotter than jalapeno peppers and more than 70 times the regular green chilies. It the next worst thing to pure capsaicin, the compound that makes chilies spicy. The crooked chili with a scorpion-like pointy 'sting' at the end doesn't look anything like the chilies we are used to seeing. For those of you who are curious, here are six facts about the notorious Carolina Reaper.

1 You Need Gloves to Handle It

It turns out, the horrible chili is not just hot to taste but also to touch. Unless you are wearing gloves or using some other protective measure, don’t even think about touching the Carolina Reaper. Imagine the horror if you bit into it.

2 It’s Artificially Created

That’s right. The Carolina Reaper was one person’s evil plan to wreak havoc on the planet. The chili is a cultivar created by Ed Currie, who rightly calls himself the President, Mad Scientist and Chef at PuckerButt Pepper Company. The chili is a cross between the deadly Bhut jolokia and red habanero.

3 Its Original Name Was HP22B

Carolina Reaper was called HP22B, which makes it sound like a sinister lab experiment. The name is short for HP22B stands for higher power, pot number 22, plant B. The creator Ed Currie held a contest to suggest names for the pepper and called it Carolina Reaper, the name the world eventually came to know it by.

4 The Seeds Are Not the Culprit

The seeds are popularly believed to lend chilies the heat. But it’s actually the inner pith or rib of the chili that makes it hot. Same goes for the Carolina Reaper; it is the flesh that is closest to the seeds contain the maximum heat.

5 It doesn’t affect birds

The chili may have deadly consequences in mammals. But for the birds, it’s a tasty treat. Scientists have not been able to pinpoint exactly why, but the birds seem to be unaffected by all the capsaicin load in the chili. A possible reason could be the limited number of taste buds that birds have. Pigeons and chickens have less than 50 taste buds, but humans have a whopping 10,000.

6 It Featured in the One Chip Challenge

The Carolina Reaper is part of Paqui Chip’s One Chip Challenge, featuring an individually wrapped single tortilla chip, flavoured with the dreadful chili. To win the challenge, all you have to do is eat the single tortilla chip and see whether you can brave the heat. Ellen DeGeneres and Kristen Bell are some of the famous names who have attempted to eat the fiery challenge.

The deadly Carolina Reaper has been featuring routinely in hot pepper challenges where restaurateurs promise patrons of free meals if they can manage to eat the chili whole or as part of a dish. In the end, many participants end up wheezing, vomiting and suffering from unbearable pain. Why these challenges have grim outcomes is anybody’s guess. There can be serious consequences of eating chilies as fiery as the California Reaper. It’s best not to fall for such marketing gimmicks because the rewards will pale in comparison to the health hazards these chilies may cause. Read the benefits and risks of eating hot peppers.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Apr 11, 2018 11:05 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).