Natural Science Forum / Biology / Biology / October 2004

If you want to criticize someone's post, please include enough
information so we can judge who is correct.  In this case, the
previous posting said: "the heat in most hot sauces comes from an
acidic compound (capsicum?) produced by the pepper plant.".

There was absolutely no mention of vinegar or acetic acid.  There was
no suggestion that vinegar might be hot.  There were some slight
errors in the statement -- capsicum is really just a crude extract
from one of the pepper plants of the genus Capsicum.  The active
ingredient, capsaicin, is not really acidic. But the statement was
essentially correct in its important component: the heat in most hot
sauces comes from a compound called capsaicin produced by pepper
plants in the genus Capsicum.

You have to wonder how folks who know nothign [sic] are so eager to
complain about people who do know something.