India turns world's hottest chilli into grenade

Indian military experts in Assam have developed a grenade made using the world's hottest chilli, which is more than 1,000 times stronger than the average cooking spice.

Researchers have developed the new crowd control grenade packed with ground seeds from the bhut jolokia chilli, which is found in Assam and is officially recognised as the hottest on the planet by Guinness World Records.

When deployed, the grenade showers the targets with a dust so spicy that in trials subjects were blinded for hours and left with breathing problems.

"The chilli grenade is a non-toxic weapon and when used would force a terrorist to come out of his hideout," said lead scientist RB Srivastava from Defence Research and Development Organisation.

"The effect is so pungent that it would literally choke them," he added.

The hotness of the bhut jolokia, which is native to Assam, in north-east India, is measured in Scoville heat units and comes in at a massive 1,001,304, which is nearly twice as hot as Mexico's red savina that used to hold the record at 577,000.

The average jalapeno measures at about 10,000.

Researchers in India have also come up with some other ingenious uses for the chilli.

According to Srivastava, "There are other applications as well, what we call women power. A specially made chilli powder could act as a tool for women to keep away anti-socials and work in this regard is also on."

The department has come up with another plan to rub the chilli powder on the fences around army barracks.

"The chilli paste could also act as a major repellent against wild elephants," Srivastava said.