by D'Lynn Ford Help, My Mouth's on Fire!
To quench the burn from a mouthful of hot chile, New Mexicans reach for foods like milk, tortillas, ice cream and beer.
Though some swear by these folk remedies, researchers are still trying to find out if sweet, bitter or fatty foods can help beat the heat of capsaicin, chile's mouth-burning compound.
In past studies, tasters have tried high-fat butter, bland rice and acidic pineapple juice-without relief, says Lisa McKee, NMSU food science researcher.
"Capsaicin forms a strong, long-lasting bond with the receptors on tastebuds, creating a lingering burn," McKee says. "In fact, we know that people who eat a lot of hot chile seem to become desensitized to its heat."
Rochelle Garnanez, an NMSU senior human nutrition and food science major, wanted to see if sugars could soothe the sting. She carried out an experiment for the McNair program, which prepares first-generation and minority students for graduate school.
Garnanez worked with a sensory panel of seven tasters who held a solution of diluted hot sauce in their mouths for 15 seconds, rated the burn and spit it out. The weak solution, made from Tabasco sauce leftovers, created a detectable burn that wasn't as hot as a typical picante sauce. "No flaming hot stuff," Garnanez says.
Next, tasters held a sugar solution in their mouths, spit it out and waited for the burn to return. The solutions contained one of three sugars: mild lactose or milk sugar; sucrose or table sugar; and intensely sweet fructose, a component in corn syrup.
The bottom line was that all liquids-even water-stopped the burn temporarily. "As soon as they spit it out, the burn came back," McKee says.
Tasters said syrupy fructose solution seemed a bit better than the other sugars, perhaps because it helped coat the mouth and distract the taste receptors, Garnanez says. Chilled liquids also seemed more comforting, probably because the brain focuses on the new cold sensation, distracting it from the burn, she says.
Though the study found no cure for mouth burn, it's fueling discussions among scientists and chileheads. Garnanez presented her research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in November and created a poster for the Borderland Regional McNair Conference in Albuquerque. McKee plans to share the findings during the poster session at the New Mexico Chile Conference on February 6.
D'Lynn Ford is the Director of New Mexico State University’s agricultural communications department.
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