In conjunction with International Education Week hosted by Capstone International, Rodgers Library featured the week’s spotlight session entitled “Science of Hot Sauce.” Ben Villalon, a professor emeritus of plant virology and plant breeding at Texas A&M University, was the speaker for the event. He spoke about topics such as nutritional and health aspects of chilies, the properties of hot sauce and other information regarding fruits and vegetables.
Villalon said he was able to discuss his expertise on peppers through Mangala Krishnamurthy, who is a reference librarian at Rodgers Library. They met in New Orleans through their work with libraries.
“Back in June there was a big meeting in New Orleans with the special library association,” Villalon said. “One of the ladies that I knew from library at LSU called me and told me to come through to the special library association. I came and gave a presentation. I met [Krishnamurthy] there and she came up to me after the meeting and said ‘I want you to come to UA.’”
Krishnamurthy was pleased with the outcome of the day’s festivities.
“Today went very well,” Krishnamurthy said. “I was very pleased to see so many people coming. We had samples and recipes that we were giving out and it’s giving some different touch to the talk, so it’s really nice.”
The presentation began with Villalon’s declaration that chilies are probably the most photogenic vegetables, as well as the most nutritional crop in the world. He went on to explain the correlation between healthy food and healthy lifestyles, saying that food is simultaneously the most important medicine and poison in the world.
Villalon recommended audience members visit webmd.com, whfoods.org and scottrobertsweb.com for guidance on healthy eating. The components of a well-balanced diet include seven grams of protein, nine grams of carbohydrates/sugars and one and a half grams of fat each meal. Both good and bad foods for the pantry and refrigerator were discussed as well.
Villallon’s recent work with peppers is combined with a fighting a viral outbreak on peppers in Texas.
“The virus problem they had in South Texas was destroying our chili industry,” Villalon said. “They asked me to come down and work on developing virus disease resistant peppers.”
The outbreak has been controlled and has decreased drastically, though there are scientists who are still working to diminish the entire virus.
He went on to break down the chemical structures of peppers and chilies, referring to capsaicin and capsicums. While green peppers are the most popular peppers in the U.S., yellow peppers are the most nutritious and have high flavonoids and much flavor. When evaluating the peppers, Villalon said one must take yield, size, color, flavor, pungency and wall thickness into consideration.
There were students in the audience from different educational backgrounds. Lindsey Sherrill, a senior majoring in secondary education, and Megan Tyler, a sophomore on the pre-med track, were both in attendance and learned about the event through their chemistry class.
“I thought [Villalon’s presentation] was good,” Sherrill said. “I don’t think the area gets enough culture as it is so it was very interesting.”
Tyler said, “This event sounded a lot more interesting than a lot of the other chemistry lectures. I knew that peppers were good for you, but I didn’t realize how extremely healthy peppers are. I think it’s awesome that he came to speak to us, and you can definitely tell he knows what he is talking about.”
