The Ghost Pepper (Bhot Jolokia) also known as Bih Jolokia, ghost pepper, ghost chili pepper, red naga chilli, and ghost chilli is an interspecific hybrid cultivated in the Indian states of Assam and Nagaland. In 2007, Guinness World Records certified that the Ghost Pepper (Bhot Jolokia) was the world's hottest chili pepper, 400 times hotter than Tabasco sauce. However, as of 2012 it was superseded by the Trinidad Moruga Scorpion. In 2000, India's Defence Research Laboratory reported a rating of 855,000 heat units (SHU) on the Scoville scale, and in 2004 a rating of 1,041,427 units was made using HPLC analysis. For comparison, Tabasco red pepper sauce rates at 2,500–5,000, and pure capsaicin (the chemical responsible for the pungency of pepper plants) rates at 16,000,000 SHU.

Ripe peppers measure 60 to 85 mm long and 25 to 30 mm wide with a red, yellow, orange or chocolate color. The unselected strain of Bhot Jolokia from India is an extremely variable plant, with a wide range in fruit sizes and amount of fruit production per plant, and offers a huge potential for developing much better strains through selection in the future. Bhot Jolokia pods are unique among peppers, with their characteristic shape, and very thin skin.

Bhot Jolokia is used as a food and a spice as well as an unexpected remedy to summer heat. It is used in both fresh and dried forms, to not only "heat up" curries, pickles and chutneys, but also to impart two distinct flavours to them. It is popularly used in combination with pork or dried fish or fermented fish. In northeastern India, the peppers are smeared on fences or incorporated in smoke bombs as a safety precaution to keep wild elephants at a distance.