Pepper, along with other spices such as cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg, was such a hot commodity five centuries ago that it drove nations to sail across vast oceans searching for new routes to the spice-rich Orient.
How did chili peppers spread to the world?
But it was when the Portuguese explorers came to Brazil a few years later and brought the chilies to Goa, in India, that chilies were able to spread to Asia and Africa , to the people who could really do something interesting with them. Traditional chili bunches: chili peppers hanging at a market in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
In Asia though, spices were an exotic trade commodity that were definitely commodified, and chili fit in well with all of the pepper and prickly ash – or what we’d think of as Sichuan peppercorn – that was being used already. Spices like ginger just were so complementary to chilies.
One more question we ran across in our research was “Where do peppers come from?”.
FL: Let me ask you about the more human side of the movement. Famously, peppers are native to the New World: Mexico or Central or South America, somewhere in that area is where they originated . Can you tell us a story of how they then got to the rest of the world?
Does pepper burn?
Chili peppers burn due to the presence of the chemical capsaicin. The capsaicin molecule has a long hydrocarbon tail which binds to pain receptor cells called TRPV1. The binding action sends signals to the brain that something is hot, thus we feel a burning sensation from eating hot peppers.
One answer is, however, its effects can be felt on any tissue, including you r skin. When you get a spicy chili burn on your skin, it can last for hours and hours. This is because the mouth typically flushes itself out with saliva and digestive enzymes. This does not occur on the skin, meaning that you will have to treat a hot pepper burn on the skin differently.
The next thing we wanted the answer to was, can hot peppers burn you?
Our answer is that hot peppers cannot burn you physically or cause any physical damage to your skin and body. Although the capsaicin present in the chili peppers may feel like your skin is burning, the effects are not the same as if you were to burn yourself from a source of fire.
Let us figure it out. if you enjoy growing and consuming chili peppers, then you’ve likely experienced the sensation of burning hot pepper on your taste buds, around your mouth, and on your skin. Capsaicin is the chemical responsible for this phenomenon. This alkaline oil-like compound is contained in the pithy white membranes which surrounds the seeds of hot peppers.
How to get rid of a pepper oil burn?
To effectively get rid of a pepper oil burn you have to know a little bit about why it burns so much and why water will NOT get rid of it. Hot peppers contain Capsaicin, a natural oil. If you get it on your skin it burns., and a lot. Just ask the makers of pepper spray. You cannot wash the oil off.