Some of these lotions have been around a long time. The very hottest, the habaneros, weigh in at 200,000 to 300,000 Scoville units. This effect led to the inclusion of hot peppers or capsaicin in many muscle soothers, and arthritis rubs, including Heet liniment, ThermoRub Lotion, Sloan's Liniment, Stimurub, and Omega Oil. Archaeologists have found remains of hot chilies in Mexican sites dating to 7000 B.C., and the fiery fruits of the capsicum plant played and important role in ancient Aztec and Mayan mythology. Capsaicin is so strong that people can detect it at a concentration as low as just one part in eleven million.

It is one of our oldest medicinal herbs. If it is applied to the skin, a warm or even burning sensation results.

In 1912 Emelen Scoville, a pharmacologist working for Lothario Davis, needed to standardize the pepper extract used to make Heet. Heet Liniment was responsible for the development of the scientific scale used to measure pepper hotness. Nowadays high-tech machines measure the hotness of peppers which range from 3,000 to 5,000 Scoville units for a jalapeno to about 50,000 Scoville units for a cayenne pepper. He invented a scale that required a panel of tasters.

Muscle Aches and Remedies Part 3 Capsacin is the HOT in hot peppers.