Guinness World Records crowns new hottest pepper

The Guinness World Records has crowned Pepper X as the hottest chili pepper in the world, dethroning the Carolina Reaper chili pepper after 10 years.

For comparison, a habanero pepper typically hits 100,000 Scoville heat units, but Pepper X registers at 2.69 million units.

Breeder and grower Ed Currie created both record-breaking peppers.

As a proprietary pepper, Pepper X pods and seeds will not be sold.

Mr Currie cultivated Pepper X for a decade on his South Carolina farm, but remained tight lipped about his project to protect his intellectual property.

"This was a team effort," Mr Currie said in a statement. "We knew we had something special, so I only let a few of my closest family and friends know what was really going on."

In lab tests at Winthrop University in South Carolina, Pepper X registered an average of 2,693,000 Scoville Heat Units (SHU), which is more than one million units hotter than Mr Currie's previous innovation, the Carolina Reaper which averaged 1,641,183 SHU.

In 1912 pharmacist Wilbur Scoville invented the Scoville Scale, which measures how many times capsaicin needs to be diluted.

Capsaicin is the chemical that gives humans that burning sensation of peppers - which can release dopamine and endorphins into the body.

After overcoming drug and alcohol addictions, Mr Currie started growing peppers as a hobby and says peppers act as a natural high.

Though people tend to believe the spice of a pepper comes from its seeds, capsaicin is contained in the placenta, the tissue which holds the seeds. Because of Pepper X's curves and ridges there is more surface area for the placenta to grow, according to the Guinness World Records.

Mr Currie is one of only five people who has eaten an entire Pepper X.

"I was feeling the heat for three and a half hours. Then the cramps came," Mr Currie told the Associated Press.

"Those cramps are horrible. I was laid out flat on a marble wall for approximately an hour in the rain, groaning in pain."

Mr Currie said Pepper X is a crossbreed of a Carolina Reaper and a "pepper that a friend of mine sent me from Michigan that was brutally hot".

Mr Currie's lawyer said 10,000 products used the Carolina Reaper name, without permission.

In an effort to protect his intellectual property and see profits this time, Pepper X pods and seeds will not be released.

The only way to taste Pepper X will be through sold hot sauces.