Dragon’s Breath is a chilli pepper of the capsicum chinense family. officially tested at 2.48 million Scoville units, which would make it the second-hottest chilli pepper in the world only surpassed by Ed Currie’s Pepper X. The Guinness World Records credits the Carolina Reaper as the hottest pepper in the world, another Ed Currie creation.

Development
The plant was developed in a duel effort between Neal Price, NPK Technology, and Nottingham Trent University during a project to test  a new type of plant food and for its essential oil having potential as a skin anaesthetic The Dragon’s Breath plant itself was later cultivated by breeder Mike Smith of St. Asaph, Denbighshire, Wales. He had not planned to breed the chilli to be a record breaker but had actually just wanting trying to grow an attractive pepper plant. The original grower Neal Price is proudly Welsh and so the new strain of pepper was named Dragon’s Breath after the Welsh dragon. It was entered in the Plant of the Year contest at the 2017 Chelsea Flower Show where it was on the short list, but ultimately did not place.

Heat
The Dragon’s Breath chilli was officially tested at 2.48 million Scoville units, surpassing the 1.5 million Scoville unites of the Carolina Reaper, the hottest previously known chilli, but was itself surpassed several months later by Pepper X at 3.18 million Scoville units.

Nottingham Trent University researchers suggested that the pepper’s ability to numb the skin could make its essential oil useful as an anaesthetic for patients who cannot tolerate other anaesthetics, or in countries where they are too expensive. Experts at the university warned that swallowing one might cause death by choking or anaphylactic shock; however this it noted that this was a standard warning that applied only to those with relevant allergies.