Measure of apparent "heat" for
hot peppers
The Scoville Heat Unit measures the spiciness of
chiles / peppers,
based on the
capsaicin present. (This is the chemical that stimulates
pain in nerve endings; i.e. "heat", in your mouth.) The Scoville measure was devised in 1912, and involves dilution with sugar in solution until the pepper cannot be tasted. Accordingly, the Scoville rating is somewhat subjective.
Some common peppers and their rating:
0 5000 20000 70000 300000
+----+----+----+----+----+----+-- / -+----+----+----+- / -+
-Mild-
-----Medium-----
--------Hot-- / --
----Extremely Hot / --
With information from http://wiw.org/~corey/chile/scoville.html