There are definitely easier ways to keep cool on one of the hottest days of the year.

But for 7,500 devotees at the Red Hot Chilli Fiesta in West Dean, near Chichester, it was preferable to swimming in the sea or downing a few cold beers in the shade.

Now in its eighth fiery year, the collection of peppers at West Dean Gardens' restored Victorian Glasshouses has expanded to include more than 200, from the benign bell pepper and the jalapeno to the blistering habanero.

The stars of the show were undoubtedly the chillis themselves but some members of the public made a spectacle of themselves as they bit off more than they could chew.

The Mayan Indians have a word which has no equivalent in English: Huuyub. That is, to pucker one's mouth and take a sharp intake of breath after taking too large a bite of a chilli.

Anne Marie Sopp, 43, who has travelled from her home in Havant, Hampshire, to attend the fiesta for five years, gasped profusely as she turned scarlet, describing the green Thai chilli paste on her lettuce leaf as "simply terrifying".

She said: "That was probably a bit much for me but I do love chillis.

"I just love the fiesta as well. It's hard to explain and I know it sounds strange but this is the best day of the year for me."

Elsewhere, visitors enjoyed cooking tips and tastings, Latin rhythms, demonstrations of how to grow their own fiery factories, a children's drawing competition and tours conducted by head gardener Jim Buckland.

He said: "I was surprised to see so many people here what with the heat.

"Because chillis come from hot countries, they are associated with the exotic.

"The nice thing about the show is it attracts a different audience from the normal people who visit the garden.

"There were a lot of young people there but also a lot of people in their 50s and 60s who are really into chillis."

Among the stallholders selling chilli products were Peter Taylor, 29, and Rachel Green, 31, from the Jumped Up Juice Company.

Peter said: "This is just something we started ourselves because we like juice of all varieties.

"We couldn't find anything in the supermarkets that hadn't been treated in some way.

"We came to the fiesta last year, and we thought we'd try juicing the chillis."

This led to the creation of Spicy Squash, a mild, nutty-tasting aphrodisiac.

Chillis come from the same vegetable family as the potato and tobacco.

The capsaicinoids in chillis bind to a cell receptor in the lining of the mouth and it is this which registers pain from heat.

This leads to the release of endorphins, the body's natural painkillers. Theories are still being tested about whether chillis have blood-thinning properties, help speed up metabolism, stimulate circulation, relieve constipation and reduce cholesterol.

Chillis are still measured in Scoville units, after a chemist who first tried to determine which was the hottest.

Jalapeno peppers merit about 5,000 points on the Scoville scale.

The Tezpur - the hottest in the world - scores 855,000, making it twice as strong as its nearest rival in Mexico, the red savina habanero.

Fiesta-goer David Drummond, 22, from Eastbourne, said: "Chilli makes you perspire, which cools you down so you can eat more chilli."