Doctors test pepper sauce for pain relief

A Trinidad and Tobago delegation should be sent to Washington to take part in the latest study on the medicinal properties of hot pepper.

Remember that time some hot sauce (or what Trinbagonians know as simply "pepper") got under your fingernail? Or maybe made contact with an open wound? Remember the excruciating pain? Ever rubbed your eye unwittingly with the same finger you used to eat doubles?

Well, some US-based doctors believe that what makes hot peppers hot could make surgery less painful.

Now guess how they're testing out their hypothesis. That's right by "dripping the chemical that gives chili peppers their fire directly into open wounds" according to an AP report.

"Don't try this at home: These experiments use an ultra-purified version of capsaicin to avoid infection — and the volunteers are under anesthesia so they don't scream at the initial burn," they warn.The scientists are banking on the numbness that pepper-induced heat leaves behind. The rationale is that if it can leave your tongue numb, then why not try it on some open wounds.

Who knows, maybe one day your doctor will tell you, "Take two teaspoonfuls of kuchela and see me in a week."

www.ap.org