Due to life this week (pipes leaking, ceiling needs fixed, furnace going and so on), I am moving next weeks post up to this week, as I was not able to finish my original post. Enjoy and I will have something special for next week.

Cayenne spice comes from grinding a chili pepper into a power that is called Capsicum.  Capsicum annum and Capsicum genus are two species of the powder; chili peppers produce capsicum and they are grown worldwide (Cayenne, 2014). A lot of the world’s population uses cayenne in their everyday diet, especially with the rising popularity of restaurants using capsicum in foods to increase spiciness.

Chili peppers are a non-caloric fruit (Kenig, S., Baruca-Arbeiter, A., Mohorko, N., Stubelj, M., Černelič-Bizjak, M., Bandelj, D.Petelin, A. 2018), not a vegetable as assumed; they are considered a berry.  Throughout history chili peppers had a lot of uses to cover the flavor and odor of spoiled food; in addition, it was also used in medicine (M., Mortensen, J. M., & E., J., 2009, January 1).  In ancient cultures, they also used chili peppers to preserve food due to the antimicrobial properties, with the same reasons and in the same manners they use salt to preserve food.  The other noted use in history of chili peppers was a form of herbal remedy, which looks like society is examining the use for herbal remedy today as well. 

More is known about capsicum today; capsicum is the source of the chili peppers spiciness or pungency. Capsicum is found in the chili peppers at the point where the placenta and the pod meet; it is not found in the seeds of the pepper as believed (M., Mortensen, J. M., & E., J., 2009, January 1).

The level of pungency that determines the spiciness of the chili pepper is called the Scoville Unit.  The founder was Wilbur Scoville, who created a test to determine the heat of peppers. The Scoville level was determined by tasters, tasting a blending of pure grounded chili pepper with drops of sugar-water, the number of drops of sugar-water that dilute the spice determines the Scoville Level. 

Another way to test the spiciness of a chili pepper, which is being used more today than the Scoville method is high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) testing; however, the Scoville Unit is the most widely known unit to determine levels.  The HPLC test separates the capsicum into the rate of absorption; then is translated into the Scoville Unit (M., Mortensen, J. M., & E., J., 2009, January 1).

The human body has a number of responses depending on the person who is eating chili peppers. The first response is causing fire to the person’s mouth, but the peppers can also increase stomach acid.  Another response chili peppers create in the human body, is increasing the metabolism and increasing endorphins in the brain (M., Mortensen, J. M., & E., J., 2009, January 1). Depending on person there are additional negative reactions to humans with the use of ingesting capsicum, such as the cause of acid reflux, addiction to chili peppers, asthma, blurred vision, changes in urine, damage to taste buds, dizziness, difficulty speaking, gagging, heart attack, gas, heartburn, hives, et cetera.

There is currently positive research available looking for the use of capsicum to help people such as:

• Pain management
• Diabetes control
• Cancer treatment
• Headache control
• Anti-inflammatory agent
• Obesity control
• Sprays. 

Treatment options include, but not limited to, topical, metabolism (lowering blood sugar), and elimination. For most healthy people are safe for the use at “common levels.”

Overall, capsicum has a rich history from determining what level of spiciness a chili pepper has to remedies to general use in history. There are a variety of uses are currently being explored instead of just to add color, flavor and heat to a variety of food dishes; in addition to it is available in a variety of forms such as supplements, extract, topical, spice, and in everyday chili pepper form.