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Topic: Capsaicin in peppers (solvable in milk and oils, but not in water)  (Read 8882 times)

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Offline ingie

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Capsaicin in peppers (solvable in milk and oils, but not in water)
« on: October 25, 2007, 05:30:57 AM »
Hello,

We are some students from Holland and we're doing research to spicy peppers and capsaicin.
--we know our English is not perfect but we think you can understand this :) --
We placed this topic on Dutch forums too but they didn't know the answers, and we don't know too.
So we hope you can help us with some questions.

Capsaicin is a substance in peppers which causes a burn feeling your tongue.
We know capsaicin is solvable in lipids and oils, so when you drink milk or something after you
ate peppers the pain will be less. But when you drink water the burn feeling is more then before,
and we were wondering why that is. We know capsaicin is not solvable in water, but we don't
know why the burn feeling is more.

We were even wondering if someone knows how capsaicin is developing in peppers,
why is the one pepper very hot (chili-pepper) and the other sweet (paprika).

The first question is the more important so we hope someone knows the answer.

Yours sincerely,
Some students from Holland
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Offline AWK

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Re: Capsaicin in peppers (solvable in milk and oils, but not in water)
« Reply #1 on: October 25, 2007, 07:59:19 AM »
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Offline ingie

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Re: Capsaicin in peppers (solvable in milk and oils, but not in water)
« Reply #2 on: October 25, 2007, 08:46:51 AM »
Thank you for your reaction.
We have searched on wikipedia earlier, but didn't find anything.
These sites don't answer the questions,
but you gave us the idea to search on 'taste'. Maybe we'll find something on that.
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Offline enahs

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Re: Capsaicin in peppers (solvable in milk and oils, but not in water)
« Reply #3 on: October 25, 2007, 09:17:22 AM »
Capsaicin is an oil. Ever mix oil with water? Because they are not soluble in each other, it gives the oil the ability to spread easily. As the capsaicin spreads in your mouth more, it coats more taste buds and burns more.

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Offline ingie

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Re: Capsaicin in peppers (solvable in milk and oils, but not in water)
« Reply #4 on: October 25, 2007, 11:43:14 AM »
Thanks! We didn't know capsaicin IS an oil ... it doesn't look like that anyway.
But it seems logical that it spreads easily through your mouth then.
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Offline enahs

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Re: Capsaicin in peppers (solvable in milk and oils, but not in water)
« Reply #5 on: October 25, 2007, 11:48:25 AM »
When I say oil, I am using it more general then you might be thinking. But that does not change what happens.
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Offline ingie

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Re: Capsaicin in peppers (solvable in milk and oils, but not in water)
« Reply #6 on: October 25, 2007, 01:33:54 PM »
Sorry, another question.

Capsaicin is solvable in oils and lipids, but not water.
It's probably not solvable in water because it's apolar, and it isn't possible to form hydrogen bridges.
But what happens when you add an oil to an oil? Or an oil to a lipid?
Why is that solvable?
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Offline agrobert

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Re: Capsaicin in peppers (solvable in milk and oils, but not in water)
« Reply #7 on: October 25, 2007, 06:11:21 PM »
Most solvents that have similar structure to the solute will solvate the solute.  Like dissolves like.  Capsaicin has polar substituents like the carbonyl and the phenolic moiety but it is insoluble in water because it has a long aliphatic hydrocarbon tail.  Hydrocarbons are extremely non polar and cannot be solvated by the oxygen electronegativity in water.  Try adding different oils to eachother.  Oils are similar to fats as they consist of long unsaturated carbon chains.  Capsaicin is a solid at room temperature but it is soluble in oils.
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Offline AWK

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Re: Capsaicin in peppers (solvable in milk and oils, but not in water)
« Reply #8 on: October 26, 2007, 01:08:35 AM »
Quote from: ingie on October 25, 2007, 08:46:51 AM
Thank you for your reaction.
We have searched on wikipedia earlier, but didn't find anything.
These sites don't answer the questions,
but you gave us the idea to search on 'taste'. Maybe we'll find something on that.
Did you read them? It is stated there that fats close receptors of pungent taste, and water open them
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Offline ingie

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Re: Capsaicin in peppers (solvable in milk and oils, but not in water)
« Reply #9 on: October 27, 2007, 01:19:37 PM »
Yes I read them. But the receptor is TRPV1, this is the receptor which opens when capsaicine comes in.
And I couldn't find that this receptor will open by water, and close by fats or oils.
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