Soxhlet extraction of capsaicinoids from peppers

This video outlines briefly the extraction of capsaicinoids from peppers using soxhlet extraction. 10 Scotch Bonnet peppers were used, and subjective taste testing by a panel of 6 volunteers indicated that while the Scoville rating by dilution tasting was approximately 100, tasting of the concentrate indicated that the extract was much stronger. Currently HPLC is used to evaluate the Scoville rating analytically, however this is impractical for the purposes of this video.