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by Conlectus 1492 days ago
Adding on: Though there is no consensus, I believe that is now the less-popular theory for the origin of spiciness. It seems instead to be a form of pesticide and fungicide.

Evidence for this is that pepper varieties tend to be spicier in wetter environments, where the biological resources spent on producing capsaicin to fight fungus are more valuable than preserving them in case of drought.

Source: https://sitn.hms.harvard.edu/flash/2012/issue131b/