Bayblab has a post up, Which organisms can feel pain?, on capsaicin. The post also points to an article about a man dying after eating habanero chili paste (though the article makes me suspect it was some allergy).
Related: 7 days of hot sauce.
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Some new research sheds light on why chili plants are spicy:
It has been thought that the chemicals known as capsaicinoids, which surround the seeds and give peppers their characteristic heat, are the chili's way of deterring microbes. But if so, then microbial infestation should bring selective…
I went to a Thai restaurant I frequent regularly today. The wait & kitchen staff know me, I called ahead to make sure they prepped "the usual," a medium rare steak served with onion, tomatoes and spicy lime sauce. In my case I like the lime sauce "4-stars spicy," that is, mixed together with…
So, I tried out Dave's Insanity Hot Sauce with some Tuna pasta yesterday. Here's a comment from Amazon: "I am a real fan of hot sauce, hot peppers and anything that makes my eyes water, and I have to honestly say that Dave's Insanity Sauce is absolutely the hottest thing I've ever tasted. I use…
If you like spicy food - and I love spicy food - then you'll find this report from Harold McGee's blog rather interesting. It concerns the evolution of capsaicin, the pungent chemical that makes chilis so spicy:
Levey, Tewksbury and colleagues tested the theory that capsaicin selectively repels…
While Mythbusters isn't exactly peer-reviewed science, they did an episode that involved repelling sharks with balloons filled with hot chili. The sharks reacted exactly the same way to the hot and the not-hot chili balloons, which is to say they ate dozens of both kinds quite happily.
my understanding is that the pepper plants want *birds* to eat their seeds preferentially since that resuls in much greater dispersal than if mammals consumed them....
Recently there were some news that the capsaicin is selected for its antimicrobial qualities, not so much as a mammal repellant.
Recently there were some news that the capsaicin is selected for its antimicrobial qualities, not so much as a mammal repellant.
the relevance to anthropology in a functional context differs from a zoological one....
Sorry, if I was unclear, I was typing on a mobile phone. I meant that the plants protect themselves from microbial infections. That this might in fact be the primary purpose of capsaicinoids, although apparently it is true that capsicum seeds that pass through mammalian digestive tract do not germinate. http://www.pnas.org/content/105/33/11808.abstract