What is capsaicin?
Capsaicin is a type of capsaicinoid, a category of alkaloids often found in fruits of the Capsicum genus of the Solanaceae family. Capsaicin is known for its role in making chili peppers spicy.
What are capsaicin’s main benefits?
Capsaicin and its analogues (e.g., capsiate, a non-spicy capsaicinoid) show promise as preworkout ergogenic supplements, producing small improvements in performance on strength-based exercises (e.g., squats) when taken about 45 minutes before a workout.[2][3]
Capsaicinoids like capsaicin might lead to weight loss, but the effect seems very small, if it exists at all.[4] Intriguingly, two clinical trials found that capsaicinoids led to a decrease in abdominal/visceral fat (with no change in total body fat levels).[5][6]
Consuming foods high in capsaicin (e.g, chili peppers) is associated with a lower risk of early death, possibly mediated by a reduction in heart disease mortality.[7]
Topical application of capsaicin can be helpful for nerve pain, with analgesic effects reported in the context of diabetes and HIV-associated neuropathy as well as shingles-related neuralgia.[8][9] Topical capsaicin may also reduce pain due to osteoarthritis.[10][11]
What are capsaicin’s main drawbacks?
Ingestion of capsaicin-containing foods causes a burning sensation to the mouth that can be unpleasant (although some people find it enjoyable, possibly due to endorphin release[12]). Topical capsaicin can result in a burning sensation at the application site.
Capsaicin can provoke adverse gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms (e.g., abdominal pain, diarrhea, and heartburn), especially in high dosages and in people with GI disorders (e.g., irritable bowel syndrome, gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD)).[13][14][15][16] There is some evidence that GI symptoms subside with regular consumption, although more research is needed.[17][18]
Case-control studies have frequently observed an association between chili pepper consumption and a higher risk of stomach cancer.[19] However, this finding remains controversial, given the limitations of case-control evidence and the fact that the China Kadoorie Biobank study, one of the highest quality studies on the topic, found that people who ate chili peppers more frequently actually seemed to have a lower risk of stomach cancer.[20]
How does capsaicin work?
Most of capsaicin’s effects are mediated by a protein called transient receptor potential vanilloid subtype 1 (TRPV1). TRPV1 is found throughout the body, including the oral cavity, nervous system, skeletal muscles, and adrenal glands.[21][22][23] By activating TRPV1, capsaicin can create the sensation of heat (e.g., in the mouth), promote sweat release, stimulate adrenaline release, increase metabolic activity in skeletal muscles, and inhibit sensory neurons responsible for transmitting feelings of pain.[22][24][25]
What are other names for Capsaicin
- Chili extract
- Hot pepper extract
- trans-8-methyl-N-Vanilyl-6-nonenamide
- Capsaicinoids
- Cayenne
- Piperine (Black Pepper extract)
Dosage information
Capsaicin/capsaicinoids are typically given in doses ranging from about 1.2 to 12 mg, although some studies have used up to 135 mg per day.[1]
Capsaicin-containing supplements are usually sold in the form of dried chili pepper powder (e.g, cayenne). A capsule containing 500 mg of dried cayenne pepper contains around 1.2 mg of capsaicin.
Frequently asked questions
Capsaicin is a type of capsaicinoid, a category of alkaloids often found in fruits of the Capsicum genus of the Solanaceae family. Capsaicin is known for its role in making chili peppers spicy.
Capsaicin and its analogues (e.g., capsiate, a non-spicy capsaicinoid) show promise as preworkout ergogenic supplements, producing small improvements in performance on strength-based exercises (e.g., squats) when taken about 45 minutes before a workout.[2][3]
Capsaicinoids like capsaicin might lead to weight loss, but the effect seems very small, if it exists at all.[4] Intriguingly, two clinical trials found that capsaicinoids led to a decrease in abdominal/visceral fat (with no change in total body fat levels).[5][6]
Consuming foods high in capsaicin (e.g, chili peppers) is associated with a lower risk of early death, possibly mediated by a reduction in heart disease mortality.[7]
Topical application of capsaicin can be helpful for nerve pain, with analgesic effects reported in the context of diabetes and HIV-associated neuropathy as well as shingles-related neuralgia.[8][9] Topical capsaicin may also reduce pain due to osteoarthritis.[10][11]
It’s been suggested that capsaicin-rich foods like cayenne pepper can help with weight loss by increasing the metabolic rate, possibly by stimulating adrenaline release and promoting thermogenesis.[35] However, clinical trials on the topic do not consistently support this hypothesis, with a number of studies finding no effect of consuming capsaicin or chili peppers on daily energy expenditure.[36] Some studies have found that capsaicin-containing supplements increase the number of calories burned after a single meal,[37] but it’s not clear that this one-time increase in calorie burning is maintained over the long term. Furthermore, capsaicin supplementation does not seem to produce meaningful weight loss, suggesting that any effects on the metabolic rate are clinically insignificant.[4]
Ingestion of capsaicin-containing foods causes a burning sensation to the mouth that can be unpleasant (although some people find it enjoyable, possibly due to endorphin release[12]). Topical capsaicin can result in a burning sensation at the application site.
Capsaicin can provoke adverse gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms (e.g., abdominal pain, diarrhea, and heartburn), especially in high dosages and in people with GI disorders (e.g., irritable bowel syndrome, gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD)).[13][14][15][16] There is some evidence that GI symptoms subside with regular consumption, although more research is needed.[17][18]
Case-control studies have frequently observed an association between chili pepper consumption and a higher risk of stomach cancer.[19] However, this finding remains controversial, given the limitations of case-control evidence and the fact that the China Kadoorie Biobank study, one of the highest quality studies on the topic, found that people who ate chili peppers more frequently actually seemed to have a lower risk of stomach cancer.[20]
Despite occasional claims that spicy foods can “irritate” the stomach, thereby promoting stomach ulcer development, there is no human evidence linking spicy foods to a higher risk of ulcers, nor is there good reason to think that capsaicin causes damage to the stomach lining.[26] Eating spicy food might cause abdominal pain in people with an existing ulcer, but this doesn’t mean spicy food is actually making the problem worse.[27]
A clinical trial from 1987 is sometimes cited as evidence that spicy food can damage the stomach. The study administered various doses of chili pepper powder to a group of 8 participants, reporting a small increase in stomach bleeding after ingestion of 100 milligrams of chili pepper powder.[28] However, there are a few reasons to be skeptical of this finding. For one thing, no clear increase in stomach bleeding was observed following consumption of higher doses of chili pepper powder (0.5 grams, 1 gram, or 1.5 grams). It seems fairly implausible that higher doses would have no observable effect on stomach bleeding, yet a low dose would have such an effect. Additionally, the study measured stomach bleeding using a chemical technique that appears not especially reliable.[29]
Some research even suggests that spicy food might protect against the development of stomach ulcers. A few small studies found that people with ulcers eat spicy food less often, not more often (as would be expected if spicy foods cause ulcers).[30][31] And while this could just be because spicy foods aggravate ulcers (leading people with ulcers to avoid them), a few clinical trials have found that capsaicin seems to protect the stomach’s mucous membrane from damage caused by alcohol and certain nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), including aspirin.[32][33]
Still, there is limited evidence looking at how capsaicin interacts with H. pylori infection, which is believed to be responsible for most cases of stomach ulcers. Although some evidence suggests capsaicin might actually inhibit H. pylori growth,[31][34] more research is needed to determine whether capsaicin has an effect, positive or negative, on ulcer development related to H. pylori infection.
If you're a chili enthusiast with a penchant for peppers, you’ve likely found yourself on the receiving end of a meal that exceeded your tolerance for spice. When that unpleasant burning sets in, a natural reaction will be to reach for a drink to try and tamp down the blaze. But what beverage is best to soothe the scald?
Plain water eases the burning from spicy foods.[38][38][39] Colder water seems to result in greater relief, possibly because the cold inhibits heat receptors activated by capsaicinoids.[40]
Milk tends to provide more relief than water.[39][41][38] This effect seems attributable to a protein in milk called casein, likely because casein can bind to capsaicin, helping to neutralize it.[41] However, the overall effect of milk is not large, meaning drinking milk will often provide only a small amount of additional relief (and sometimes none at all[42]) compared to just drinking water.
Beverages with sugar can provide relief from the burning.[42][39] According to one theory, the activation of sweetness receptors on the tongue inhibits the receptors responsible for spiciness. In at least one study, milk with sugar provided additional burning relief compared to the two components separately.[39]
Alcoholic beverages have been suggested to help reduce the burning sensation caused by spicy food because capsaicin is soluble in alcohol. However, one of the few experiments to test this found that water with 5% ethanol (comparable to the average beer) provided no additional relief compared to regular water.[39]
Most of capsaicin’s effects are mediated by a protein called transient receptor potential vanilloid subtype 1 (TRPV1). TRPV1 is found throughout the body, including the oral cavity, nervous system, skeletal muscles, and adrenal glands.[21][22][23] By activating TRPV1, capsaicin can create the sensation of heat (e.g., in the mouth), promote sweat release, stimulate adrenaline release, increase metabolic activity in skeletal muscles, and inhibit sensory neurons responsible for transmitting feelings of pain.[22][24][25]
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