Why milk, not water to help the burn of red hot chilly!
Everyone of us in their life time might have faced the heat of hot and spicy chilly or pepper and ran out to get a glass of water. Eyes burning, water dripping for mouth.. Okay you get the gist! And even why the spicy heat would keep on increasing rather than the reverse sometimes? Well let's find out why!
So to understand why, we would need to understand what makes the chilly so spicy to us. So the answer to this question would be CAPSAICIN. Before we get to the dictionary or a search on the address bar of the browser, it's an active compound present in the chilly plant tissues ( C18H27NO3 - the chemical formulae for any one interested).
Now when we know who do we need to put the finger on for the spiciness, let's understand how it does work because we might have to share some part of the blame as well. Why do I say that? Well because the compound capsaicin binds with receptors present in the humans which detect and regulate the heat. The name well, TRPV1 (Transient Receptor Potential Vanilloid). These receptors are present from mouth to gut and in fact throughout the peripheral and our central nervous systems.So when the protein TRPV1 gets activated the body sends out wave of feeling of pain.
Coming back to why milk works better than water is because capsaicin is basically insoluble in water i.e kind of hydrophobic. However when in contact fats and oils it gets broken and gets dissolved. Milk also contains protein called as casein that helps in this process. A glass of water might bring a temporary relief but it will probably be only a moment of peace before the heat shows it's face again. Water might actually disperse the capsaicin around more triggering more heat if it meets more receptors when spread across. This is why you might have felt more spiciness after drinking water when coming back from a spice attack. Now you know why that happened!
The concentration of this "capsaicin" is said to be more in the seeds which is why those hurt more when chewed. The reason for this is believed to be evolution where the plants evolved in such way to protect the seed being destroyed by the animals. And some animals evolved to not react to these seeds and them being thrown(excreted) out of their body without being digested actually is kind of a win win situation for both.
The heat or the spiciness is measured using the "Scoville Heat Unit (SHU)" after a chemist named Wilbur Scoville who in 1912 is said to have developed a special scale to measure the spiciness of pepper. Also capsaicin has much more accolades with aiding in medicinal causes, preventing fungal growth to name a few.
So now you know what makes chilly so spicy and why milk is better than water!! But, don't run away from water because you would need some after the dehydration caused by the heat. Until next time, stay tuned for more curious talks!
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