Why are the peppers so hot

The Chinese people all know that when "Spicy" is tasty, there will be a lot of lingering tongue and tongue, and the main crop that produces spicy food is zanthoxylum bungeanum. The scientific community has also been trying to find out how this tingling sensation brought about by malaise is triggered. A Japanese-English scientist and his colleagues recently discovered that pepper is a "vibrator" and a unique nerve fiber in the human body plays a decisive role.

Researcher

When foreign "science students" eat Sichuan pepper

Professor Yushiro Hiroshi, a researcher at the Cognitive Neuroscience Center at the University of London College, told the Beijing News reporter that he likes to eat pepper, but his own preference is not the original intention of doing this research. "We have always been interested in how a particular sensory fiber produces a special conscious touch."

Pepper itself is not spicy, it is a special spice produced in China, it is not only widely used in Sichuan with spicy flavor, but also common in Southeast Asian cuisine. Internationally, Sichuan pepper is called "Sichuan pepper" and becomes a unique seasoning of Asian cuisine.

Pepper has a peculiar spicy taste, and the human body's lips produce a tingling sensation and even a feeling of electric shock.

"After eating pepper, just like a buzzer on your lips, the message to your brain is the same," said Yukura.

All of the body's sensory fibers send information to the brain through the same electrical pulse signal, but it produces a completely different feeling. Previous animal studies have shown that the active ingredient in Zanthoxylum bungeanum (also known as zanthoxylum bungeanum) selectively stimulates some of the soft fibers, but it does not make it clear how the zanthoxylum is causing tingling.

These fibers, with very complex feedback patterns, respond to specific vibration frequencies. This made him and his colleagues wonder whether it is also the unique vibrational sensation produced by exciting a certain fiber.

The researchers wanted to know if the tingling felt that the bottom was a kind of vibration and whether it had an oscillation frequency.

test

Spicy vibration frequency: 50 Hz

The new study decided to conduct experiments on human volunteers. They applied the Chinese wormwood to the volunteer's upper lip. Most people had tingling, burning, cooling, warming, or numbness. Then, volunteers also applied zanthoxylum on the lower lip.

When a tingling sensation occurs, the researchers vibrate their fingers with a mechanical vibrator carried on the index finger of the volunteer and ask the volunteer if the frequency of vibrations on the fingers is higher or lower than the sensation on the lips.

Scientists constantly debug the frequency of vibrations on the fingers. At about 50 Hz, volunteers generally agree that the frequency of vibrations on the fingers is consistent with the spicyness of the pepper, that is, according to the stimulation of the finger on the fingers. , like the spicy taste on your lips.

Finally, the researchers leaned the machine against the volunteer's lips for a long period of time to reduce the nerve fiber's tactile sensation. When the nerves were less sensitive, it seemed as if the vibration had slowed. Then, they smeared with zanthoxylum, and as a matter of fact, the volunteers felt "not so hot". It was like eating a lot of spicy food and feeling a bit paralyzed.

The frequency of 50 Hz is most closely related to a sensory fiber named RA1. Yonekura said that RA1 fiber can have a wide frequency of vibration but is most sensitive at 50 to 100 Hz.

In the end, how RA1 fibers are stimulated by pepper has not been the focus of this study, but Yucang said that previous studies have shown that it may be related to the inhibition of transmission ions on cell membranes by Zanthoxylum bungeanum.

use

Study spicy cure chronic diseases

Yukura pointed out that neuroscientists have used menthol and red pepper to help them understand how the human body feels pain and temperature, and spicy will help them understand the mystery of touch.

"If you pick up a cup, it sounds like a daily, simple and somatosensory movement," he said. "In reality, this is the result of a complex combination of different signals from different nerve fibers."

He said that pepper selectively stimulates specific nerve fibers, which helps people understand what the smallest unit of "feeling" is and helps people understand what fiber can cause "feeling".

In addition, he said that many chronic diseases have tingling symptoms, but scientists have not been able to understand exactly where the tingling comes. Yucang said that hope that the study of Zanthoxylum can help scientists better understand how the brain handles these sensory signals and even find ways to slow down the tingling sensation.

Why do some people like to eat spicy food, but some people do not like it? Yukura said that this other research direction, he believes that in the future scientists can make a difference in how touch is transformed into taste.

Taste stimulating spicy grading

"Scorville Spicy" is a measure of capsaicin content, which was established by the American chemist Scoville in 1912. Scoville dilutes the pepper extract with sugar water, and then invites people to taste it. If it is diluted to 1000 times and finally tastes no more spicy, then the "spicy degree" of the pepper is 1000SHU.

â–  "Solution" spicy

Also belonging to the stimulation of the taste, as the "relative" of the pepper, the pepper must be pungent.

Is the taste of tactile?

All of the feelings are transmitted to the brain through the electrical pulse signals generated by the fibers. The brain finally makes different interpretations of these signals to produce a feeling.

The taste buds on the tiny taste buds are spread over the tongue. Traditionally, there are four basic flavors: sweet, bitter, sour, and salty. However, some tastes are caused by other feelings. For example, scientists have discovered in recent years that the sense of smell can have an effect on taste, which is also one of the taste sensations caused by touch.

Painful and hot?

Yukura said that peppers, mustard, and menthol all can stimulate the feeling of pain.

But why do people like this kind of pungency that causes "pain"? The scientific community has different views on this.

According to scientists, the pain caused by peppers can offset other pain. There are also some scientists who believe that humans love peppers not because of their benefits, but because of the pain caused by peppers.

Hot out of heat is hallucination

Even at room temperature, eating chili can produce a "hot" burning sensation. Why is this? This must come back to the feeling. Pepper has an active chemical called capsaicin. Scientists have discovered that it stimulates a receptor named VR1 in the mouth, which in turn peels off the sensory neuron's electrons and transmits a spicy stimulus signal. However, the VR1 receptor itself does not sense the presence of capsaicin. It is mainly responsible for thermal induction, which is the induction of heat. Therefore, when the VR1 receptor is stimulated by capsaicin, the signal received by the brain is similar to that of drinking. The water-like burning sensation is not really burning, but the burning illusion that the nerve receptor emits after being confused.

This edition was written by Beijing News reporter Jin Hao

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