Capsaicin, a chemical compound derived from chili peppers, is classically considered an irritant, due to the warming and burning sensations it causes. Widespread consumption of chilis suggests many individuals enjoy this burn, but these sensations can be overwhelming if the burn is too intense. In a new study, published recently in the journal Physiology and Behavior, a team of scientists tested various drinks for their ability to reduce oral burn following consumption of capsaicin.
Nolden et al assessed the ability of common beverages to reduce oral burn from capsaicin. Image credit: Jill Wellington.
“We were interested in giving capsaicin solutions to many test participants and we were concerned with the lingering burn at the end of an experiment,” said study senior author Dr. John Hayes, a researcher at the Pennsylvania State University.
“Initially, one of our undergrad researchers wanted to figure out the best way to cut the burn for people who found our samples to be too intense.”
Dr. Hayes and his colleagues, Gabrielle Lenart of the Pennsylvania State University and Dr. Alissa Nolden from the University of Massachusetts, looked at five beverages and involved 72 people (42 women and 30 men).
Participants drank a spicy tomato juice containing capsaicin. Immediately after swallowing, they rated the initial burn.
Then, in subsequent separate trials, participants drank purified water, cola, cherry-flavored Kool-Aid, seltzer water, non-alcoholic beer, skim milk and whole milk. They continued to rate perceived burn every 10 seconds for two minutes.
There were eight trials. Seven included one of the test beverages and one trial did not include a test beverage.
“The initial burn of the spicy juice was, on average, rated below ‘strong’ but above ‘moderate’ by participants and continued to decay over the two minutes of the tests to a mean just above ‘weak’,” said Dr. Nolden, first author of the study.
All beverages significantly reduced the burn of the mix, but the largest reductions in burn were observed for whole milk, skim milk and Kool-Aid.
“More work is needed to determine how these beverages reduce burn,” Dr. Nolden said.
The team suspects it is related to how capsaicin reacts in the presence of fat, protein and sugar.
“We weren’t surprised that our data suggest milk is the best choice to mitigate burn, but we didn’t expect skim milk to be as effective at reducing the burn as whole milk. That appears to mean that the fat context of the beverage is not the critical factor and suggests the presence of protein may be more relevant than lipid content,” Dr. Nolden said.
“Beverages with carbonation such as beer, soda and seltzer water predictably performed poorly at reducing the burn of capsaicin. And if the beer tested would have contained alcohol, it would have been even worse because ethanol amplifies the sensation.”
“In the case of Kool-Aid, we do not think that the drink removes the capsaicin but rather overwhelms it with a sensation of sweet.”
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Alissa A. Nolden et al. 2019. Putting out the fire — Efficacy of common beverages in reducing oral burn from capsaicin. Physiology & Behavior 208: 112557; doi: 10.1016/j.physbeh.2019.05.018
