Spicy food as anesthetic

Harvard researchers are experimenting with adding capsaicin -- the thing that makes chilis spicy -- to topical anesthetic to numb bits that were otherwise unavailable. I'm a spicy food junkie and I live and die by the French sauce, a muscle-rub that's got enough capsaicin in it to raise blisters if you use it too much.

Clifford Woolf and his colleagues at Harvard Medical School have now discovered a way of blocking just the pain neurons using capsaicin - the active ingredient in chilli peppers - along with a version of lignocaine that can't diffuse through cell membranes unassisted.
Capsaicin activates the TRPV1 receptor on pain neurons. This in turn opens up a channel on the neurons' membrane, allowing the lignocaine to pass though. The drug then gets to work blocking the sodium channels. In tests on rats the drug combination completely blocked pain without affecting motor function or other senses (Nature, DOI: 10.1038/nature06191).

Link

Discussion

Take a look at this

#1 posted by brian corcoran , October 4, 2007 7:27 AM

For those that are interested in learning more about this, Herve This covers the phenomenon in his book "Molecular Gastronomy", a great read for any boingboing foodies out there...

#2 posted by sagevann , October 4, 2007 8:50 AM

There was a great discussion about the exact effect on the Joost channel Terra. A really interesting history of the chilli pepper and it's many uses.

http://joost.com/073000h

#3 posted by 1quickprick

, October 4, 2007 10:35 AM

I, being pepper a addict, thought you might want to check out sinus buster. They have a whole array of awesome capsaicin products. Also sweat and spice has a pretty good selection of capsaicin products of the tasty variety . Keep up the good work.

#4 posted by strider_mt2k

, October 4, 2007 10:46 AM

I do likes me some hot pepper action once in a while.
It generally does make me feel better! :D