Something I've been confused about and figured maybe someone might have some understanding on this topic. I know the chili came from the Americas. But where did the Naga chili or Something I've been confused about and figured maybe you might have some understanding on this topic. I know peppers came from the Americas. But where did the Naga chile or Bhut Jolokia come from? I had guessed it must have originally come from the Americas but how or did it change to be so much hotter than the indigenous hot peppers? Was it transported there and changed over time, was it originally a domesticated plant in the Americas that took off in India and just died off here?
Chili peppers are a couple different species in the genus Capsicum which were all originally domesticated in the Americas (predominantly Mesoamerica). The Spanish carried them to the Philippines in the 1500s, and from there they spread into various parts of Asia. Through selective breeding and hybridization of those species, increasingly hotter varieties of chili are constantly being developed. Bhut jolokia / Ghost Chili / Red Naga is a hybrid of C. chinense and C. frutescens (cultivars of these species include habañero chilis and tabasco chilis, respectively).