Papaya - a world class meat tenderizer, natural digestive aid, prevents ulcers, and also a soft contact lense cleaner.Red Pepper
Medically, It’s HOT!
Family: Solanaceae; (includes Potato, Tomato, Eggplant, Tobacco, Nightshade)
Genus and Species: Capsicum Annuum, C. Frutescens
Also known as: Hot Pepper, Cayenne Chili Pepper, African Pepper, Tabasco Pepper, Louisiana Long (and Short) Pepper, Guinea Pepper, Bird Pepper, Capsicum; Green and Red Bell Pepper, Paprika, and Pimiento are all milder varieties of C. Annuum
Parts used: Fruit
The fiery taste and bright color of red pepper make it one of the world’s most noticeable spices. Recently, this herb has become as hot in Healing as it is on the tongue.
Extracts of red pepper have proved remarkably effective at relieving certain types of severe, chronic pain. It also may aid digestion.
Although it’s been a culinary staple in Asia since ancient times, it was unknown in Europe until Columbus returned with it from his first voyage to the New World.
Don’t Call It Cayenne
The term cayenne comes from the Caribbean Indian word kian. Today Cayenne is the capital of French Guiana. But ironically, only a tiny fraction of the u.s. red pepper supply comes from South America or the Caribbean. Most comes from India and Africa. Tabasco (Louisiana pepper) grows along the Gulf Coast of the United States. Because so little red pepper comes from around Cayenne, the American Spice Trade Association considers cayenne a misnomer and says this herb should be called red pepper.
Too Hot to Handle
Seventeenth-century English herbalist Nicholas Culpeper wrote that immoderate use of red pepper “inflames the mouth and throat so extremely it is hard to endure,” and warned it “might prove dangerous to life.” But when used sparingly, he claimed the herb was of “considerable service” to “help digestion, provoke urine, relieve toothache, preserve the teeth from rottenness, comfort a cold stomach, expel the stone from the kidney, and take away dimness of sight.” Culpeper urged women to mix red pepper, gentian, and bay laurel oil in cotton, and insert it vaginally to “bring down the courses” (menstruation). But he warned that “if [it] be put into the womb after delivery, it will make [the woman] barren forever.”
During the 18th century, red pepper was mixed with snuff to boost the inhaled tobacco’s kick. Herbalist Phillip Miller warned against this, saying the combination caused “such violent fits of sneezing as to break the blood vessels in the head.”
In India, the East Indies, Africa, Mexico, and the Caribbean, red pepper enjoys a long history as a digestive aid. But this use never caught on among Europeans, who have traditionally believed that hot spices cause stomach ulcers.
American Foot Warmer
The first North American to advocate red pepper in Healing was Samuel Thomson, creator of Thomsonian herbal medicine, which enjoyed considerable popularity before the Civil War. Thomson believed most disease was caused by cold and cured by heat, so he prescribed “warming” herbs extensively, and red pepper was chief among them.
After the Civil War. America’s Eclectic physicians called red pepper capsicum and recommended it externally for arthritis and muscle soreness and internally as a digestive stimulant and treatment for colds, cough, fever, diarrhea, constipation, nausea, and toothache. The Eclectics also advised adding red pepper to socks to treat cold feet, a use echoed in some herbals today.
The Eclectics considered red pepper invaluable in the treatment of delirium tremens, the combination of hallucinations and violent tremors common among advanced alcoholics: “Capsicum is the very best agent that can be used in delirium tremens. It enables the stomach to take and retain food. The best form is in a tea or strong beef soup. There is no danger of overdose as a [large] quantity may be swallowed with evident pleasure and without ill results.”
American folk healers have also recommended dusting children’s hands with powdered red pepper to stop thumb sucking and nail biting.
Contemporary herbalists prescribe capsules of cayenne powder for colds, gastrointestinal and bowel problems, and as a digestive aid. Externally, they recommend cayenne plasters for arthritis and muscle soreness.