Americans are becoming addicted to a drug long popular in Southeast Asia and Latin America. Millions are now seeking out a regular “hit” of this chemical. Some people are so dependent upon it that the thought of not having access to their drug of choice makes them anxious and uncomfortable.
These “chile-heads” are in love with hot peppers. They keep searching for ever hotter and spicier varieties. Some pepper fiends even carry their own stash with them wherever they go. Rumor has it that the famous orchestra conductor, Zubin Mehta, cultivated his own special spicy chiles and then carried them around with him in a silver case wherever he went.
The active ingredient in hot peppers, capsaicin, is so strong that people can detect it at a concentration as low as just one part per million For many, the fiery sensation in the mouth and the beads of sweat on the brow are a necessary component to a truly satisfying meal.
Spicy sauce and salsa sales are red hot. While ketchup sales have been mostly flat, the hot sauce market has taken off like a rocket ship, growing at over 150 percent during the last decade or so. Spicy food has become a staple of American cuisine and the hotter the better–from chips and tacos to chili and hot wings.
Fortunately, there are no known negative consequences to hot chile, unless you swallow too much too fast of something way too hot. In fact, the fruit of the capsicum plant has been used medicinally for centuries. Archeologists have found remains of chiles in Mexican sites dating to 7000 BC, and the fiery fruits play an important role in ancient Aztec and Mayan mythology.
If capsaicin is applied to the skin, a warm or even burning sensation results. There are capsaicin lotions, creams, gels, pads, ointments and patches. Frequent use of topical capsaicin depletes the nerve endings of substance P, a chemical that seems to be necessary for transmitting the sensation of pain to the brain. Pharmacologists have employed this effect to alleviate the pain of arthritis, muscle sprains and strains, backache, diabetic neuropathy and the excruciating neuralgia (nerve pain) that can linger after a shingles attack.
This has led to the inclusion of hot peppers or capsaicin in many arthritis rubs, including Castiva Arthritis Pain Relief, Capsin, Heet Liniment, Icy Hot Arthritis Therapy, Sloan’s Liniment, Sportsmed, Therapath Warm and Zostrix. Efforts to quantify the heat of capsaicin extracts for pharmaceutical products led to the development of the scientific scale used to measure compare chile peppers.
In 1912 Wilbur Scoville, a pharmacologist working for the drug manufacturer Parke Davis, was given the assignment of standardizing the pepper extract going into Heet Liniment. He invented a scale that required a panel of tasters sipping ground-up chiles in a base of sugar water and alcohol.
Nowadays, that crude technology has been replaced by high-tech machines using liquid chromatography that measure the “hotness” of peppers ranging from 2,500 to 8,000 Scoville units for a jalapeno, 6,000 to 23,000 for a serrano pepper to about 40,000 to 50,000 Scoville units for cayenne or Tabasco peppers. Scotch bonnets can take your head off, ranging in heat from 100,000 to 325,000 Scovilles. The very hottest of the hot are the habaneros, weighing in at up to 350,000 Scoville units.
Makers of spicy sauces try hard to out-hot their competitors. Here are just a few examples:
Cholula Hot Sauce (3,600 Scoville Units)
Original Tabasco (up to 5,000 Scoville Units)
Crazy Jerry’s Brain Damage (11,000 Scoville Units)
Mad Dog Inferno (90,000 Scoville Units)
Dave’s Insanity Sauce (180,000 Scoville Units)
Da’ Bomb Ground Zero (234,000 Scoville Units)
Blair’s Mega Death Sauce (550,000 Scoville Units)
Purified capsaicin measures around 15 million Scoville units.
Scientists have been investigating other uses for capsaicin. Nutritionally, chile peppers are especially high in both vitamin C and beta-carotene, the precursor to vitamin A. Preliminary results suggests that this compound may help dissolve blood clots and prevent heart attacks. Its potential for lowering cholesterol levels is also being studied.
But too much of a good thing can hurt. If you find your mouth on fire, remember that water won’t douse it. Instead, reach for milk or another dairy product. Ice cream may be the best antidote. Starches such as bread, tortillas, rice or bananas are also good for counteracting the burn.
If you would like to learn more about hot peppers and how they may actually protect the stomach lining from damage, you may be interested in our book, The People’s Pharmacy Quick & Handy Home Remedies, published by National Geographic. It also contains a wealth of information on our other favorite foods.
