Chile Peppers

by Dave Dewitt

  There have been investigations focused on dangerous doses for humans of the various substances that have capsaicin as an ingredient. For example, C. L. Winek conducted a study, published in Drug and Chemical Toxicology, that examined the overdose potential of Tabasco Sauce. He concluded that a person of average weight would have to consume nearly a half gallon of the sauce to overdose and become unconscious.

  In a related study, rats were fed large amounts of Tabasco Sauce and suffered “no gross or microscopic pathological changes or any significant biochemical changes.” Their growth rate also remained normal. In a similar study, rats were fed crude extracts of chile pods and crystalline capsaicinoids by stomach tube while allowed access to normal food and water. None of the rats died and they all appeared normal throughout the study. Of course, the rats were killed and then autopsied, but no gross pathological changes were detected.

  Humans have also acted as guinea pigs with oleoresin capsicum. It is an ingredient in superhot sauces with words in the name like insanity, death, and suicide. These sauces are tasted at food shows by people who have no idea of how hot they are. Some people, with few capsaicin receptors (see page 273) in their mouths, are not bothered by the extreme heat. But most people react very negatively to the superhot sauces, experiencing severe burning and sometimes blistering of the mouth and tongue. Other immediate responses have included shortness of breath, fainting, nausea, and spontaneous vomiting. People should be very careful of commercial hot sauces that list oleoresin capsicum as an ingredient.

  Aside from the above adverse effects, the superhot sauce will not hurt you. “Comprehensive nutritional studies have not shown any adverse effects of chile or capsaicinoids even at ten times the maximum use levels,” writes one of the world’s experts on capsaicin, V. S. Govindarajan, author of the mammoth study, Capsicum—Production, Technology, Chemistry, and Quality. But even if you do overindulge in capsaicinoids, do not worry, for they are quickly metabolized in the liver and excreted in urine within a few hours.

  The chemical that makes chile peppers hot is becoming more popular every day in applications that range from the strange to the ingenious. In 1995, Jack Challem wrote in The Nutrition Reporter that more than 1,300 studies on capsaicin had been published in medical journals since 1990, and that number surely is much larger now. But medicine is far from the only use of capsaicin.

  Around 1990, reports were all over the media about an inventor who was adding capsaicin to the paint used on boat hulls and intake valves on municipal water systems, to prevent the growth of barnacles and zebra mussels. That story just faded away, but now it’s back as scientists from Burlington Bio-Medical and Scientific Corporation of Farmingdale, New York, have announced the development of a method of making large quantities of denatonium capsaicinate. The compound, which includes capsaicin and the anesthetic lidocaine, is both painfully spicy and intensely bitter. Denatonium capsaicinate is being proposed for a paint additive because it is nontoxic to marine life and will effectively repel barnacles. Other uses for the compound include applying it to veterinary sutures to prevent pets from pulling them out with their teeth. Also, coating fiber-optic cables with the chemical could prevent rodents from gnawing on them.

  Capsaicin has a well-documented history as an animal repellent. Chile powder is added to birdseed to prevent squirrels from eating it; there is no effect on birds, and the vitamin A in the powder brightens the birds’ plumage.

  One company, IntAgra, manufactures Get Away Repellent spray in two formulations: Dog and Cat, and Squirrel and Raccoon. The Dog and Cat repellent is used to keep those animals out of garbage, gardens, lawns, and landscaped areas. The Squirrel and Raccoon spray is used on bird feeders and gardens.

  One of the more interesting uses of capsaicin as an animal repellent involves insects. My wife, Mary Jane Wilan, applies superhot sauces with oleoresin capsicum in them on the threshold of our front door to deter the large outdoor cockroaches from crawling in under the door. Now we learn that she was ahead of her time. NTI International has released NouGuard, a biorepellent for ants that is made mostly from capsaicin. It is sprayed around the perimeter of structures to keep the ants outside.

  Harald Zoschke of Suncoast Peppers reported that two of his customers in Arizona order his extremely hot Liquid Ax hot sauce to prevent woodpeckers from pecking holes in their wooden garages. Birds enjoy eating pepper pods, but they have an aversion to the highly concentrated oleoresins. He also says his neighbor puts Liquid Ax on his phone cords to deter their cats from chewing on them.

  But, depending upon the concentration of capsaicin, chiles or chile sauces are not always an effective deterrent for mammals. My wife and I had a cat named Attila the Hungry who would dip his paw in red chile sauce cooking on the stove and lick it off. One year in southern New Mexico, the Department of Game and Fish issued special out-of-season hunting licenses to farmers so they could legally remove deer that were raiding green chile fields and eating the plants and pods all the way down to the ground. And the skins, stems, and seeds of processed chiles are often fed to cattle.

  By now everyone probably knows that there are dozens of brands of capsaicin creams on the market to combat the pain of arthritis, as well as shingles, psoriasis, and other skin disorders. Researchers are putting new twists on these medications almost weekly. One complaint about creams is that, when applied, they burn the fingers and the user has a good chance of getting some of the cream in his or her eyes. Therefore, it was only natural to find new application techniques. Penecine Topical Pain Reliever is sold in three-fluid-ounce plastic containers that feature a hands-free roller-ball applicator. Zostrix, one of the first creams on the market, is now available as Zostrix Topical Analgesic in stick form. It is advertised as portable, convenient, and drip-free. A single stick comes in a 0.7-ounce rack-displayable blister pack. Another application format is the patch. Capsaicin patches, like mustard plasters, have been around for a while, but now they are making a comeback as TheraPatch Penetrating Pain Relief Patches.

  Other medical developments include the introduction of capsaicin gels and the addition of other medicines or herbs to make the capsaicin products more efficacious. Heritage Consumer Products has released Eucalyptamint 2000 Arthritis Pain-Relieving Gel that contains capsaicin and menthol. Another analgesic gel is Arthogesic, which claims to give temporary relief from minor muscle aches, joint arthritis, backache, bruises, strains, and sprains.

  Some manufacturers believe that the addition of herbal remedies assists the capsaicin. JUSTIA Patents observes: “Sports Med and Arth DR utilize capsaicin plus glucosamine, raspberry leaf, valerian, and white willow bar.” Nature’s Sunshine Product’s Capsaicin Gel has twice as much capsaicin as usual (0.05 rather than 0.025 percent), plus yucca, horsetail, chamomile, elder flower, peppermint oil, spearmint oil, aloe vera, and allantoin, a component of comfrey herb. NatureWorks manufactures Swedish Bitters Capsaicin Cream, which contains capsaicin and Swedish bitters extract for use in treating arthritis, backache, and pains in the muscles and joints.

  One company, Thione International, has been granted a US patent for its compositions for relief of the symptoms of arthritis. The patent protects Thione’s healthcare preparations that are based on L-glutathione, “the body’s key protector and most important anti-oxidant,” according to company spokesman Dr. Theodore Hersh. The first Thione product based upon the patent is Pain Relief Rx, which combines the company’s antioxidant complex with capsaicin.

  CAPSAICIN RECEPTORS

  I admit it, I was completely wrong in past articles. But I have an excuse: I was misled by published articles. For years I have written that the sensitivity in the mouth for capsaicin was controlled by the number of taste buds, and that supertasters, people with a higher concentration of taste buds, couldn’t take the hot stuff as well as the nontasters, who had a genetically-linked fewer number of them in their mouths. Sometime in 2002, I received an e-mail from a reader telling me I was wrong and that taste buds could only detect sour,
sweet, bitter, salty, and umami flavors. (Umami is the flavor of monosodium glutamate, or MSG.) He wrote that capsaicin is not detected by the taste buds because it does not fall into any of those five categories. This person promised to forward links to prove me wrong, but he never did, so I forgot about it.

  But in May 2003, the proof was, well, in the spicy pudding. Scientists David Julius and Elizabeth D. Prescott Julius of the University of California, San Francisco, announced they had identified a lipid molecule called PIP2 that plays a crucial role in controlling the strength of the burning sensation caused by capsaicin. A lipid molecule is a fatty molecule, insoluble in water but soluble in fat solvents and alcohol—just like capsaicin. In the mouth, there is a capsaicin receptor called TRPV1, and the lipid molecule PIP2 is bound to it. In the presence of capsaicin, the PIP2 molecule separates from the receptor, causing a painful sensation. Here’s the scientific description: “In this process, the capsaicin receptor (TRPV1) is sensitized by phosphatidylinositol-4, 5-bisphosphate (PIP2) hydrolysis following phospholipase C activation.” That’s quite a mouthful.

  Now, what governs the degree of pain? The strength of the binding of the molecule to the receptor, say the scientists—the stronger the binding, the more powerful the pain sensation when the capsaicin causes the separation. And what determines the strength of the binding? To quote the researchers: “Thus, modification of this PIP2 regulatory domain by genetic, biochemical, or pharmacological mechanisms may have profound effects on sensitivity of primary afferent nerve fibers to chemical and thermal stimuli under normal or pathological conditions.”

  Now I’m no scientist, but it seems to me that they are saying the sensitivity to capsaicin is determined by genetics—some people’s lipid molecules have a stronger bond with the capsaicin receptors than do others. But the fact that biochemical and pharmacological mechanisms can also play a role could explain why some people become desensitized to capsaicin and can take more and more heat.

  I’m certain that further study will reveal even more information regarding this process, so stay tuned. And by the way, if you are worried about capsaicin destroying your five to ten thousand taste buds, you should know that all of them are replaced every two weeks anyway. So forget about your taste buds and concentrate on the binding of your lipid molecules!

  OLEORESIN CAPSICUM AND THE SUPERHOT CHILES AND PRODUCTS

  Oleoresins are extracts from the dried pods of both hot and nonpungent capsicums. There are three types, from most to least pungent: oleoresin capsicum, oleoresin red pepper, and oleoresin paprika.

  Oleoresin capsicum is made from the hottest chiles available, usually from African, Indian, or Asian chiles, although any hot chile can be used. The heat rating is generally between 500,000 and 1,800,000 SHU, or about 4–14 percent capsaicin. A single pound of 500,000 SHU oleoresin will replace 20 pounds of cayenne pods.

  This extremely hot oleoresin is used in personal-defense pepper sprays, in super-hot sauces such as Dave’s Insanity Sauce, in pharmaceuticals such as topical analgesic creams, and in some manufactured foods. Since its heat can be precisely measured, manufacturers can make foods consistently of the same heat level.

  A milder extract is oleoresin red pepper, produced from larger, milder red-chile pods grown in Mexico, the US, India, and Turkey. It ranges from 80,000 to 500,000 SHU, and a pound of 200,000 SHU–oleoresin red pepper will replace 10 pounds of good quality red chiles. It is mainly used in food processing.

  Oleoresin paprika is extracted from a large number of paprika varieties and is nonpungent. However, the milder the chiles, the higher their color content, so oleoresin paprika is used primarily as a red dye in food manufacturing.

  Oleoresin manufacture is a relatively simple process that takes a large, expensive plant with a lot of machinery. The chiles are ground to a coarse powder and then treated with a solvent. To produce a fat-soluble oleoresin, dichloroethane, hexane, or benzene is used. For a water-soluble oleoresin, acetone or ethanol is the usual solvent.

  The solvent, sometimes heated, is percolated through a bed of the powdered chiles. Then the solvent must be removed from the crude oleoresin by distillation, a tricky process because if the mixture is overheated there is a loss of flavor and solubility. After distillation, the oleoresin is sometimes purged of fats with ethanol, a process that keeps it from turning rancid and further concentrates the capsaicin. The result is a very thick dark reddish-brown liquid concentrate. The percentage of capsaicin varies according to the chiles used and the methods used to extract the oleoresin.

  The Rezolex plant in Radium Springs, New Mexico (see the photograph at the beginning of this chapter), has great access to the raw product because operator Lou Biad owns extensive farming operations and three pepper-dehydrating plants. They process mostly nonpungent American paprika types.

  The Rezolex process begins with dehydrating the pods to 3 percent moisture. The pods are then ground into a powder and pelletized. The pellets are washed with hexane continuously until they release their natural oils. The solids that are left over are turned into feed for sheep and goats, and they are so tasty that longhorn cattle used to break down the fences around Rezolex to feed on spilled spent pellets.

  The oil and hexane mixture is called miscella, and this must be carefully heated to remove the hexane, which constitutes 90 percent of the miscella. The heating reduces the hexane to 2 percent, and then to get it below the federal regulations of 25 parts per million, the miscella is treated in a thin-film evaporator under a heavy vacuum. It takes 15 pounds of pods to make one pound of oleoresin paprika.

  If Lou Biad were processing pungent pods for oleoresin capsicum, the oleoresin would be recovered by further treating with methanol, which binds with the capsaicin. The mixture settles and can be drained off, and then the methanol is distilled off and the result is concentrated oleoresin capsicum.

  The oleoresin paprika produced by Rezolex is used primarily by food processors to add color to their products. It is an ingredient in chicken feed because it enriches the color of egg yolks and gives gray chicken meat a pinkish hue. It is sprayed on potato chips to give them a golden color when baked. One of the oleoresin’s principal uses is by the meat industry, particularly by the manufacturers of pepperoni, bologna, and wieners. It gives meat the appearance of being leaner than it really is, and is used in spice blends such as black pepper and garlic oil that are used to treat processed meats. It also shows up in ketchup and margarine, and in frozen-food batters for fish and chicken.

  Oleoresin capsicum is used in food processing to provide a precise heat level to various foods. For example, it could be added to tortilla chips to add color and a measured level of pungency. Besides its use in food processing and pharmacology, other uses of oleoresin capsicum include mixing it with paint to make an antifouling coating for the hulls of boats. The coating prevents the accumulation of barnacles. In 1995, a US patent was issued for the coating, which is also used to prevent zebra mussels from fouling water-intake valves along the Great Lakes. Other uses include spraying it on lambs to repel coyotes in Wyoming and Colorado, and on fence posts to prevent “cribbing”—excessive chewing by cattle and horses.

  Oleoresin capsicum is also sold in a concentrated “hot sauce” form as a repellent for deer, rabbits, and mice, and is applied to fruit and nut trees, vegetables, and shrubs. Hot-pepper wax, a concentrate that is also mixed with water and sprayed on foliage, is a repellent for aphids, spider mites, thrips, and whiteflies.

  The hotter the chile, the fewer that have to be used to make the oleoresin capsicum, so that’s where superhot chiles come into the picture. In fact, because oleoresin capsicum has an unpleasant flavor, many product manufacturers are foregoing oleoresin and are just using the superhot pods or the mash—made of ground chiles, salt, and/or vinegar—which ferments.

  To make the mash from the Rica red habaneros described in chapter 3, the pods are picked, destemmed, sorted, bagged, and moved to the plant from the field by pickup truck. A flowing water wa
sh cleans the chiles, which are further sorted, and then they are treated with an organic grapefruit extract for disinfection. The chiles are moved from the wash by conveyor belt into a revolving cylinder that spin-dries the chiles. From the dryer, the chiles move to the grinder, where they are ground into one-half- or one-quarter-inch pieces. Salt is added at this stage to 15 percent of the weight of the chiles. The rough mash is pumped into sealed tanks and ferments for 10 to 12 days. The fermented mash is pumped into nylon bags with polyethylene liners, which are supported by heavy wooden frames. The package is called a “tote” and weighs 2,200 pounds. The totes are sealed with nylon ties and are transported by truck to Limón, where they are sent in containers to Louisiana. The mash continues to ferment about 5 percent more during shipping. After further aging in Louisiana, the mash is used by hot sauce manufacturers to add heat to cayenne sauces. At the plant, a pulper removes seeds and skin particles before it is blended. Dilution with water or vinegar reduces the salt concentration to less than 10 percent.

  Rica-red chile mash before fermentation. Photograph by Dave DeWitt.

  Carolina Reaper’, the hottest pepper in the world. Photograph by Hortimages. Shutterstock.

  ‘Naga Jolokia’, the Indian superhot; fresh on the left, dried on the right. Photograph by Harald Zoschke. Used with permission.