I chopped up a bunch of jalapenos yesterday and had to get pretty intimate with them to strip out the interior pith etc. I washed my hand twice with soap and water and there was still enough oil on my hands when I got home to irrigate the hell out of my eyes when i rubbed them, So I wash them twice again with an alcohol based cleaner last night and now in rubbing my eyes this morning there’s STILL a hint of this stuff on my skin when I rub my eyes.
Why is this stuff so incredibly adherent and tough to remove? It’s
only oil for God’s sake.
Soap, in my understanding, works by being sticky to gunk (like oil). Dishwashing soap (i.e. detergent) works by breaking oils down. The former probably works better for getting dirt and stuff off of your body, but the latter probably works better for plain ol’ oil.
Also really good at removing oil from skin is Tecnu, the stuff sold as an urushiol (Poison Oak/Ivy/etc.) remover. It’s primarily deodorized mineral spirits, but it works great at getting oil off. Just to be sure to follow the directions - apply it to dry skin, and then rinse off after a little while.
Capsaicin, the fun stuff in peppers, is an alkaloid. I don’t understand how that’s different from an alkaline substance, but wouldn’t some rather friendly acid, such as lemon juice, vinegar, or Coca-Cola® turn it into a less crazy salt?
This is why I got a D in Chemistry, isn’t it? :smack:
The molecule causing the hotness, capsaicin, is quite hydrophobic and poorly soluble in water. Hence a glass of water not doing much to calm a fiery curry, but a bowl of yoghurt can be effective. It’s also the source of the ring of fire.
Something like swarfega would probably work for cleaning your hands - it’s the UK brand name of the thick green jelly that mechanics use to clean oil off their hands. It solubilises the hydrophobic oils and is formulated to be relatively easy on your skin. It’s kind of a heavy duty solution to cleaning your hands after chopping chills though.
Capsaicin is not very basic - it features an amide group rather than any more basic nitrogen functionality. You’d stand a better chance of using a base to make a salt, as it also has a phenol group in the molecule which is weakly acidic. The problem would still be the overall hydrophobic structure though, hard to get into water.