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Chilli peppers were first domesticated in Mexico about 6,000 years ago and reached Europe, Africa and Asia only after Columbus, carried by Spanish and Portuguese ships from the 1490s.

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Columbus brought chillies back to Spain from the Caribbean in 1493. Unlike black pepper, which Europe imported at great cost from India, chillies grew easily in many climates, so they spread fast. Portuguese traders carried them to Africa, India and South-East Asia in the 1500s, and they reached Korea around 1600; centuries later red pepper became central to kimchi. In Hungary, paprika was once called törökbors, meaning Turkish pepper, because it arrived by way of the Ottoman lands. The heat comes from capsaicin, which triggers pain sensors in mammals but not in birds. Birds swallow the seeds whole and spread them, while mammals, which crush seeds as they chew, are put off.

Türkçe oku
Acı biber ilk kez yaklaşık 6.000 yıl önce Meksika'da yetiştirildi. Avrupa'ya, Afrika'ya ve Asya'ya ise ancak Kolomb'dan sonra, 1490'lardan itibaren İspanyol ve Portekiz gemileriyle ulaştı.

Kolomb acı biberi 1493'te Karayipler'den İspanya'ya getirdi. Avrupa'nın Hindistan'dan pahalıya aldığı karabiberin aksine birçok iklimde kolayca yetiştiği için hızla yayıldı. Portekizli tüccarlar 1500'lerde onu Afrika'ya, Hindistan'a ve Güneydoğu Asya'ya taşıdı; 1600'lere doğru Kore'ye ulaştı, yüzyıllar sonra da kırmızı biber kimçinin vazgeçilmezi oldu. Macaristan'da paprikaya bir zamanlar törökbors, yani “Türk biberi” denirdi, çünkü bitki oraya Osmanlı toprakları üzerinden gelmişti. Acılığını, memelilerde ağrı algılayıcılarını uyaran ama kuşları etkilemeyen kapsaisinden alır. Kuşlar tohumları bütün olarak yutup yayar; çiğnerken tohumu ezen memeliler ise acıdan kaçar.

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Background reading: Chili pepper
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