The Many Medicinal Uses For Cayenne Pepper
 (Read 250+ times)
By Glory Lennon
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It was the indigenous people of the Caribbean who named the fiery, red fruit of the plant botanically known as Capsicum Annum or Capsicum Frutedcens. They called it Kian which, in turn, became Cayenne. Cayenne is the capital of French Guiana where Christopher Columbus “discovered” this fruit on his first voyage to the new world. He was the one, therefore, to introduce Europe to the Red Pepper but as most people believed at the time that spicy foods caused ulcers in the stomach, they weren’t too thrilled by this discovery.
The Red Pepper is a spicy hot member of the Solanaceae family. Some cousins include such garden favorites as potato, tomato and eggplant plus well-known others like tobacco and nightshade. This pepper commonly goes by many names now, Hot, Louisiana Long, Chili, African, Tabasco, Guinea Pepper or simply Cayenne. The funny thing is that most of the Red Pepper used in the United States and the rest of the world doesn’t come from Cayenne, French Guiana anymore but instead from India and Africa. The American Spice Trade Association has been clamoring for the dismissal of the Cayenne name because of this but whether we’re likely to comply is up in the air. Some habits are hard to break, so, likely it shall always be called Cayenne Pepper.
Though Red Pepper was used for many centuries throughout Asia, and the “New World” it wasn’t until the seventeenth century when it gained some note as being useful medicinally. Always a bit slow on the uptake but eventually getting there, it was the famous and well respected English herbalist Nicolas Culpeper who started recommending it as an herb which helped in such varying complaints as relieving toothache, promoting urine, aiding digestion, expelling kidney stones, comfort to a cold stomach, “woman’s concerns”(Menstruation) and even helping dim eyesight.
It wasn’t until the American Civil War when Samuel Thomson, the noted American herbal physician of the time, declared Red Pepper a wonderful herb for external use in relieving arthritis, muscle soreness and cold feet. Internally it was proclaimed as a digestive stimulant and also good for treating fever, colds, cough, nausea, toothache, constipation and diarrhea. It had also been recommended to alcoholics to relieve them of violent tremors and hallucinations that came with withdrawal. What were then called “Eclectic” physicians used to lace strong beef broth with the Red Pepper to ease the stomach into taking and retaining food for these violently ill individuals. There was even a time when parents used to dust Red Pepper onto their children’s hands to discourage nail biting and thumb sucking though some would consider that child abuse now.
Nowadays it is well known that Red Pepper has a chemical which gives it its healing properties. This is called Capsaicin and is a main ingredient in several over-the-counter medications for pain relief especially arthritis. Red Pepper stimulates saliva and gastric juices both of which break down food to aid digestion. As with many culinary spices Red Pepper has antibacterial properties which makes the claim true of its use to relieve infectious diarrhea. Diabetics who suffer from Burning Foot Syndrome have found great relief when using Red Pepper. Shingles which can be very painful especially for the elderly, can be treated with Red Pepper as can Cluster headache sufferers. Two recent studies show promise in that Red Pepper may help reduce cholesterol and prevent heart related diseases.
If all this isn’t enough reason for you to start sprinkling the Red or Cayenne Pepper onto your food then nothing much will. There can be no doubt of its uses as a medicinal herb. I suggest you plant a few Hot Pepper plants in your next medicinal herb or vegetable garden. It’ll do you some good.
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Author Bio Box: Glory Lennon
 visit http://www.helium.com/user/32782 for more amazing garden lessons, cute short stories and funny novel excerpts.
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