Cayenne - The Burning Balm. It's not just for chili anymore.
By Charles Dickson, Ph.D.
It may surprise you to know that the very ingredient that makes your
Friday night chili an adventure (or a dare, if you're anything like my
friends) has been documented as a powerful medicine for over a thousand
years. Few herbs, in fact, have the versatility for human use as does
the common chili pepper, or Capsicum frutescens.
The capsicum plant is a small spreading shrub that originated in
tropical America but is now widely cultivated throughout the world,
including in the United States.
The small red fruit owes its stinging pungency to a chemical called
capsaicin, which comprises about 12% of the pepper and was isolated by
chemists more than a century ago. If the word capsaicin looks familiar,
it's likely because you've seen it advertised as an ingredient in many
drugstore ointments used to relieve arthritis and muscle pains.
Registered patent names such as Capsaizin P and Zostrix contain the
chili pepper ingredient. The Indians of the American tropics cultivated the chili pepper for
centuries for both its culinary and medicinal uses. The plant makes its
first appearance in Western literature in 1494, when it captured the
imagination and pen of a physician named Diego Alvarez Chanca, who
accompanied Columbus on his second voyage to the West Indies.
Today many world pharmacopoeias (official drug lists) include cayenne or
capsicum, and the American Physicians Desk Reference includes several
prescription drugs that contain it. Here are some ways that you can use this powerful and very useful herb
in your home.
Relieve Muscle Pain
Combine:
1 tablespoon cayenne powder (from your garden or grocery store)
1 tablespoon wormwood (from gardenor herb store)
1 tablespoon tansy flower (from garden or herb store)
8 ounces vinegar
Warm gently to dissolve the powders, then cool and strain through
cheesecloth. Next, add a 1Ž2 ounce of spirits of camphor and 8 ounces
of turpentine to the herbal/vinegar mixture. You now have a super
liniment. Its secret is in its potency as a rubefacient, or substance
that stimulates the blood flow to the surface of the skin.
Ease Coughs and Congestion
Cayenne is a good expectorant and can be used to relieve coughs and to
break up congestion.
Combine:
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup water
1 teaspoon cayenne powder
Sweeten to taste with a little honey. Take a tablespoon and you'll soon
be breathing easier.
Lower Blood Pressure
Research has shown capsaicin to be an effective antihypertensive (blood
pressure reducing) agent.
Combine:
1 teaspoon cayenne powder
1 cup hot water
Mix and drink. If this cayenne cocktail is too pungent for you, try
taking your capsicum in capsule form. Purchase some empty gelatin
capsules at a pharmacy (size 00) and fill them with cayenne powder. Take
two of these capsules daily.
Lighten Menstrual Flow
Cayenne is also an effective bleeding regulator and so has become a
time-honored remedy for reducing excessive menstrual flow.
Mix and drink:
1/8 teaspoon of cayenne
1 cup warm water
Soothe Ulcers
Millions of people suffer from ulcers.
While modern medical research has shown that antibiotic therapy is
effective for treating many cases, you can get some relief from the pain
by mixing a teaspoon of cayenne in a cup of hot water and drinking. For
those who were raised with the milk and cream approach to treating
ulcers (which, incidentally, doesn't work), the idea of hot chili
peppers probably sounds horrendous. Yet both experience and research has
shown this to be an effective pain reliever.
Several studies conducted in Brazil and Thailand have found no higher
incidence of stomach ulcers among their pepper-fond populations. Nor do
hot peppers aggravate or cause hemorrhoids, as has often been claimed,
since capsaicinoids are broken down before they reach the lower
intestine.
From Head to Toe
But we're not finished yet. If cayenne is effective against aching
muscles, cold congestion, high blood pressure, excessive menstrual
bleeding and ulcer pain, what else can it possibly help? Give up? Think
feet. Standing for long stretches can leave your "dogs barking," as the
saying goes. To relieve aching feet, try placing some cayenne powder
inside your socks before putting them on. It'll stimulate blood
circulation, which will do wonders to relieve that tired feeling.