Question 8: the correct answer is Spicy. Got it right? Award yourself 1 point.
Question 9 of 10
Which blood type is called the universal red blood cell donor?
Why, in question 8: Which of these is NOT one of the five basic tastes?
The answer is spicy. The burn of chili pepper is not a taste but a sensation of heat and pain: capsaicin activates the same sensors that warn us about high temperatures. The five basic tastes are sweet, salty, sour, bitter and umami.
Why chili pepper seems to burn
The sensors activated by capsaicin exist in the mouth, but also in the skin and eyes. That is why rubbing your eye after cutting chili hurts so much.
The burn is measured on the Scoville scale, created in 1912 by the American pharmacist Wilbur Scoville. A bell pepper sits near zero, while the hottest peppers exceed 1 million units.
Water helps little to relieve it, because capsaicin barely dissolves in it. Milk and fatty foods usually work better.
Birds do not feel the burn of chili pepper. One accepted explanation is that this benefits the plant: birds eat the fruit and spread the seeds whole, while mammals, which would chew them, avoid the burn.
