Denpasar –
Have you ever wondered why chilies taste hot? The answer is because chilies contain capsaicin which is a compound that gives chilies their spicy taste.
Apart from providing a spicy taste to chilies, it turns out that capsaicin has benefits, detikers. Come on, see a more complete explanation of what capsaicin is and its health benefits below.
What is Capsaicin?
Capsaicin is a bioactive compound in chilies that gives it a spicy and hot taste. This compound is often used to relieve pain because of its anti-inflammatory properties. Capsaicin also has various other health benefits for the body
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This compound is naturally found in chili and paprika seeds. Capsaicin extract is often used as an additional ingredient in food, either to preserve it or add a spicy taste.
Benefits of Capsaicin
Capsaicin has analgesic, anti-inflammatory, antibacterial and anticancer effects. These effects make capsaicin very beneficial for health. The benefits of capsaicin are as follows:
1. Healthy Heart
Several studies show that the capsaicin in chilies can help lower cholesterol levels, reduce blood pressure, and have an anticoagulant effect (prevents blood clots).
Therefore, capsaicin can be used to reduce the risk of heart disease, hypertension and stroke by reducing levels of bad LDL cholesterol and increasing levels of good HDL cholesterol in the body.
2. Overcoming itchy skin
Capsaicin has an anti-inflammatory effect which is useful for reducing inflammation and itching on the skin. However, there are some cases where capsaicin can cause irritation and redness of the skin.
Therefore, even though capsaicin is believed to be able to treat skin problems, it turns out that not all skin problems can be treated with capsaicin.
3. Helps Fight Cancer
According to a study conducted in 2020, capsaicin has anti-angiogenic properties, meaning it can help prevent the formation of new blood vessels that cancer needs to grow.
The researchers also concluded that combining capsaicin with chemotherapy could provide two benefits for cancer sufferers. Capsaicin is thought to help reduce pain and increase the effectiveness of cancer drugs. However, further research is still needed to confirm the benefits of capsaicin in this context.
4. Pain Reliever
Capsaicin is the main component in various pain relievers. These drugs are generally available in the form of creams, gels, or patches and are used as therapy to reduce pain related to nerves or muscles.
5. Antidiabetic
Research shows that capsaicin has several beneficial effects for diabetes. Capsaicin can reduce insulin resistance, making it easier to absorb blood glucose into cells from the bloodstream. Apart from that, capsaicin also helps prevent obesity, which is a major risk factor for diabetes.
6. Overcoming antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections
One of the main challenges in global health today is the increase in bacterial infections that are resistant to antibiotics. In this case, the bacteria have mutated so that they can no longer be treated using antibiotics.
A 2015 study tested the effectiveness of capsaicin against bacteria that cause infections that are resistant to the antibiotic erythromycin. The results of this research show that this compound is able to kill resistant strains of bacteria.
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