ed@unisoft.UUCP (Ed Gould) (03/02/84)
Actually, the hotness in peppers comes from a chemical that is not an irritant, but a nerve stimulant. As I understand it, at least, this chemical "tricks" the nerves into thinking that there is something going on, and what the nerves get is something like a burn or heat. However, the body's burn reactions are all wrong! For some reason, good burn reactions have never evolved in humans, and the body over-reacts, essentially panicing. This results in blisters and the like, which are actually bad for healing the burn. How does this relate to peppers, you ask. Well, peppers do cause burn reactions in some people. But the burn wasn't really there. The nerves were stimulated into thinking that something was wrong, and the body paniced. (I don't claim complete accuracy for all of this, it's way out of my expertise. It is the way I understand that it all works, though, from talking to some folks who do know.) -- Ed Gould ucbvax!mtxinu!ed
wolit@rabbit.UUCP (Jan Wolitzky) (03/02/84)
What Ed Gould had to say about peppers being a nerve stimulant and not an irritant is pure hogwash. If you think that blistering is a nervous system reponse, and not a local phenomenon, just spray your finger with a local anesthetic and hold a match to it. It will blister just fine. Blistering is also, contrary to Gould, perfectly adaptive: it form a nice, watery heat shield between the heat source and the goodies that lie below skin. Peppers *ARE* an irritant, and the burn or pain you feel when you eat them is because of the response of the nervous system to the histamines released when the surface cells are damaged by irritating oils. The same effect is caused by any damaging substance, like acids or alkalis. Jan Wolitzky, AT&T Bell Labs, Murray Hill, NJ