OK I see that you were right on the 80x or 100x hotter issue - an I am man enough to admit it- no wusses here
Then you have your cousin to Habanero (sorry, I can’t find the tilde), the Scotch Bonnet. Hotter, still.
After eating Scotch Bonnets, JillGat, you can’t find the tilde.
It’s been seared off.
Tidbit 1: The easiest way to create the ñ is to paste it in from someone else’s words. The second-easiest way is to open MS Word, press CTRL-SHIFT-~, then press n.
Tidbit 2:
As a Christmas present for my father, I once bought a bottle of Pure Cap, which consists of vegetable oil and capsaicin. It comes in a tiny little bottle with an eyedropper cap; that in turn is sealed in a childproof pill-bottle.
In order to buy this stuff I had to sign a disclaimer, asserting that I was not intoxicated at the time and did not plan to do anything unsafe with the product (such as eat it). Its warning label includes the line, “Do not allow product to come in contact with unprotected skin.”
Last time I asked, he said he’d never cooked with the stuff, but it was great for keeping rabbits out of the garden.
Laugh hard; it’s a long way to the bank.
Thanks for the ~ over the n trick, as you have seen from the above post I took the easier way of the 2.
There is a lengthy article on the healing properties of Cayenne in the classic (and quirky) natural-health and herbal medicine book Back to Eden by good ol’ Jethro Kloss.
He was probably the first one to propose putting cayenne in your socks to keep your feet warm, and he also cautioned, “Don’t place too much however; you may find it too warm.”
As for capsicum’s use as a pest repellent, this article also relates a charming bit of folklore from south of the border:
“In Mexico the people are very fond of it; and their bodies get thoroughly saturated with it, and if one of them happens to die on the prairie the vultures will not touch the body on account of its being so impregnated with the capsicum.”
Do you have a cite for that last bit?
Oh BTW the neatest way to get that tilde over the n for all you Español typists is:
- Make sure your keyboard’s NUM LOCK is on.
- Hold down the ALT key.
- Type 164 on the number pad on the right end of your keyboard. See? There’s a whole range of special characters for various languages you can get with those numerical codes.
BonnKansan has it right–or at least as right as current hypothesis has it. Transmission of pain impulses between receptors is thought to occur through the production of the cleverly-named Substance P (which means scientists don’t know its actual molecular structure). Capsaicins over-stimulate production on the first few applications (hence Zostrix initially hurts like hell), but if regular application continues, production of Substance P can never rise high enough to cause significant pain, either from the application of the capsaicin or the pain it is being used to alleviate.
Danno describes a process long known as “counter-irritation” which may be a milder form of the same phenomenon and is most often cited as the mode of operation for rubs containing oil of wintergreen (methyl salicylate). In addition to the pain relief, the irritation also does, as Danno says, cause increased blood flow to the area.
As a backpacker in grizzly country, we carry a highly concentrated capsaicin spray as a last ditch defense against grizzly attack. While this works, according to some rangers who have had to use, some folks who apparently did not read directions, have sprayed it around their camps in a misguided effort to discourage bears. To the contrary, it has apparently (because who knows what a bear is thinking) attracted grizzlies who associate it as a food smell (cajun bears?).
One last word: I am a physical chemist, not a health professional, so take my medically-related comments in light of that disclaimer.
Can any body tell me, where in Germany, could I purchase a packet of Capsaicin ABC plasters for chronic back pain. Have had all the investigation done by my medical doctors. odeas0 Thank You
I would suspect you can buy them in any pharmacy or similar type of store.
Perhaps your doctors can advise you – there may be medical supply houses that have this as well.