Spicy food: Pain on the tongue

Capsaicin

Who eats too sharp snaps, for air and has to burn the feeling. Sweat is on the forehead, and he wants to drink gallons of water. It can not alleviate the irritation, but to help milk, yogurt and cheese. With exotic food, it is usually the rice, which neutralizes the sharpness. “Sharp” no taste as sweet, salty, sour, bitter or umami (similar to beef broth) is. These are perceived by the taste buds in the papillae of the tongue mucosa.

Sharp substances in food solve heat or painful stimuli from

Contrast, sharpness effect on heat receptors, resulting in a pain-or heat stimulus alone. It means “hot” in English “hot,” but also “armed”. On the sensation of sharpness of the facial nerve is involved trigeminal nerve. Spicy food also stimulates cold receptors. Even hot mint tea is refreshing “cool” because the Pfefferminz8öl acts on cold receptors.

“The sensor technology has in recent years made great progress, but for sharpness it is still very early stages of research. In the coming years we will know much more. For example, how to make the field in the pharmaceutical or food manufacturing advantage” says Prof. Wolf-Rüdiger Stenzel, a food chemist at the Free University of Berlin.
 
Focus can be seen only by mammals – not only on the tongue but also on the nose and eyes. Characteristic of sharpness is that the stimulus for longer than the contact with the sharp material exceeds that period. The definition differs from the above-mentioned flavors, which can also be detected behind a field. Once you get used to a certain degree of severity of eating, one would not miss this kick. “Through focus is mostly a positive stimulus was triggered,” says Prof. Stenzel.

Which spices give us the kick in the sharp biting food? Mustard, chili, peppers, ginger, horseradish, garlic and pepper are the preferred agitators. Although they “inflict pain”, they act as flavor enhancers in moderation: The mucous membranes are better supplied with blood by the edge and let the flavors in the meal experience more intense. For foods for children but a little more careful.
That in hot countries is eaten sharper, makes sense: Spicy food promotes sweating, which causes a cooling effect through evaporation. Also be distributed by the edge of stimuli such as serotonin, endorphins. “It is scientifically proven ingredients that inhibit the growth of many sharp fruits of bacteria – without harming the intestinal flora,” says Prof. Stenzel. Also, a fungicidal effect is said to them. The sharpness in paprika and chili peppers is contained in the fruits of the capsaicin and other capsaicinoids, and is measured in “Scoville Units” (SHU = Scoville Heat Units). They are named after the American Wilbur Scoville, who developed the scale 1912th Peppers measure about 100 units, 2500-5000 Tabasco sauce, and pure capsaicin is mixed with 15 – given 16 million SHU.

Sharpness has antiseptic and protects against cancer

The agitators are of interest to patients. Have long been used capsaicin or mustard for heat patches that can be alleviated by stimulating circulation, muscle pain. 2010, Chinese researchers have demonstrated by studies in rats that capsaicin has a relaxing effect on blood vessels and can therefore reduce blood pressure.

Studies by researchers at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles and colleagues from the University of California showed that chillies extract could reduce the growth of prostate cancer cells in mice by 80 percent.

Hot mustard protects against cancer-causing substances. This shows a study by the Institute of Environmental Medicine and Hospital Hygiene, University of Freiburg. “Hot mustard protects against the mutagenic effects when grilling or frying meat resulting polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, PAHs short,” says Prof. Volker Mersch-Sundermann, one of the researchers.