Spicy taste
The gustatory sharpness is a sensory impression of sharpness in the mouth, nose and / or throat when eating certain foods, by irritation of heat and pain - receptors caused the mucosa. This trigeminal perception of spiciness is not a sensation of the sense of taste like the gustatory sensory qualities sweet, sour, bitter, salty and umami .
Since the perception of sharpness is not based on an actual change in temperature, spicy food consumed cold can also be perceived as “hot”. Spicy dishes taste the hotter the hotter they are served. The Scoville scale provides a measure of the hot taste of chilli and chilli products . Occasionally, high-proof drinks are also described as having a sharp taste - according to their alcohol content .
Substances that have a comparable effect on cold receptors, on the other hand, are perceived as "cool". For example, the freshness effect of mint oil can be explained, which also occurs with warm peppermint tea , but is more clearly felt on cold dishes such as peppermint ice cream .
Pharmacological effect
When in contact with the skin, sharp substances irritate certain receptors ( nociceptors ) by imitating the effect of the receptor's own messenger substances and thereby triggering their activation. On the one hand there are the heat receptors, which reflexively trigger an increase in blood flow and thus a warming of the tissue. On the other hand, capsaicin in particular irritates the type C pain receptors in the skin very specifically . The stimulation of both the heat and pain receptors leads to an increased release of the substance P , which as a neurotransmitter conducts the stimulus via the afferent neurons to the spinal cord and brain .
Typical hot substances are acid amides such as capsaicin ( types of paprika , including chilli and chili peppers) or piperine and piperettine ( pepper ), but also mustard oil glycosides ( horseradish , garden cress ) and gingerol ( ginger ).
Reasons for eating spicy foods
At first glance, it does not seem sensible to spice up food if it causes pain. The actual defense mechanism against predators, which some plants have developed, is used to increase the taste perception. The hot parts of the spices actually act as a flavor enhancer : The irritated receptors in the mucous membranes are better supplied with blood, thus also the neighboring taste buds, which in turn are more sensitive to the actual flavors sweet , sour , bitter , salty and umami .
Since high levels of heat also open the skin pores all over the body and thus encourage sweating, eating spicy foods can also lower the body temperature. This is possibly one reason why people like to eat spicy food, especially in countries with a warm climate. Another reason to spice up food is the release of happiness hormones ( endorphins ) associated with the pain reaction . Hot spices, especially chilli , are therefore considered a kind of drug and have a stimulating effect.
In addition, the ingredients of many hot fruits inhibit the growth of bacteria. One can assume that this is why spicy seasoning has spread in those countries in which the growth of bacteria (including pathogens) is particularly favored by the climate.
history
Plants with parts that are perceived as sharp by the eater or the herbivore appear to have had an evolutionary advantage in reproduction. The deterrent heat is perceived by mammals, but not by birds, at least in the case of capsaicin , which is contained in chilli pods. The allicin contained in garlic also serves as protection against predators: Starlings and various worms, among others, avoid garlic. From the plant's point of view, it is better if it is not eaten by mammals, but by birds. Birds do not bite the seeds of the fruit and cannot digest them, so they are excreted again, giving the seeds the chance to become a plant. The droppings then also serve as fertilizer for the plant. In addition, birds travel much longer distances than mammals and can therefore spread the seeds further.
Humans have used the parts of plants that are perceived as spicy as both a flavoring and a remedy. For example , pepper is found in the recipes of Apicius , a Roman gourmet from the 1st century AD. In Central and South America, the sharp original forms of the paprika were domesticated and used as early as 3,000 to 6,000 years ago . Before the first paprika plants came through Christopher Columbus' journeys to Europe and later to Asia, ginger was mainly used as a hot spice in Asian cuisine. However, since pepper imported from India was very expensive in Europe, the fruits of paprika, which are often referred to as Spanish pepper, were traded as a pepper substitute.
Hot spices and plants
pepper
The black pepper or just pepper ( Piper nigrum ) is a plant from the family of the pepper family (Piperaceae), the fruits of one of the contained alkaloid piperine deliver pungent spice. Piperine has less of an effect than the capsaicin contained in hot paprika , the total proportion of all piperine-like compounds in peppercorns is around 5% - the sensation of spiciness caused by it is roughly in the middle of the spiciness scale of hot paprika.
The pink fruits (obtained from the Brazilian and Peruvian pepper trees ) often used in pepper mixes with black pepper have almost no spicy ingredients. Since their taste is relatively close to pepper, dishes can be perceived associatively as hot.
Szechuan pepper is also not related to black pepper. It is characterized by the sharp, tingling taste, which causes a feeling of numbness on the lips and tongue. In Chinese, this taste impression is called má (麻) and is differentiated from the usual sharpness là (辣). Often the time in which this heat develops is significantly longer than with pepper or chilli heat. The substances responsible for this feeling are various amides , which make up up to 3% of the ingredients of the seed pods.
Paprika, chilli
The spiciness of peppers is triggered by capsaicin and other capsaicinoids. Humans are still able to recognize capsaicin in a dilution of 1 to a million. Is known to indicate the sharpness of pepper in Scoville units (US English: S coville H eat U nits - SHU, with SCU for Sc Oville u nits). Sweet peppers z. B. usually has between 0 and 100 units known American Tabasco sauce has 2,500 to 5,000 units and Habanero peppers are from 100,000 to 500,000 units. Pure capsaicin corresponds roughly to 16,000,000 Scoville, so the hottest chillies have a capsaicin content of around 3%. Chilli sauces can often achieve even higher capsaicin levels through chemical-physical concentration. Above a certain size , the Scoville units no longer play a role. The human body is no longer able to distinguish the sharpness above a threshold value (approx. 1,000,000 Scoville). Pure capsaicin, known as the hottest chili sauce in the world, was sold under the name Blair's 16 Million Reserve until the beginning of 2014. The price for about 1 ml was around $ 300. In pharmacological wholesale there are corresponding quantities of pure capsaicin for less than 100 euros.
Trying to reduce the effects of chilli by drinking water or other beverages is mostly in vain. Although the receptors for the sensation of heat are responsible for the perception of sharpness, drinks, in addition to cooling, which can lead to an improvement in the short term, mostly tend to distribute the capsaicin and thus have an opposite effect: namely an even stronger feeling of burning. The best methods for combating chilli heat are by drinking milk or eating dairy products like cheese or yogurt . The fat contained in these foods dissolves the capsaicin and thus reduces the sensation of pain. This is one of the reasons why Mexican dishes are often gratinated with cheese. The same applies to alcohol, which also dissolves capsaicin. Another way to get pain relief is by eating dry bread. The saliva and thus also the capsaicin are absorbed by the bread and can be swallowed without further irritating the receptors.
Just as the fat content of a food can reduce the perceived sharpness caused by capsaicin, capsaicin in concentrations of 4–16 mg / kg can in turn reduce the perceived sweetness of foods.
Mustard and radish
The mustard or horseradish spiciness is created by isothiocyanates . These volatile oils help to make mustard or horseradish feel “hot”.
Sinalbin is a mustard oil glycoside that is found in white mustard , among other things .
Black mustard protects itself from predators with a one percent content of sinigrin , a combination of tear-irritating, pungent smelling and extremely pungent-tasting allyl isothiocyanate with glucose . The typical radish taste is caused by the fact that allyl isothiocyanate is formed from the mustard oil glycoside contained in the plant if it is damaged by processing or biting.
Other plants, such as wasabi and some types of cress such as garden cress or watercress , contain mustard oil glycosides and are responsible for the perception of heat. The nasturtium , which does not belong to the actual cress , is mainly due to its mustard oil glycoside that it tastes similar to cress types and is often assigned to them. Because of their slightly pungent taste, the leaves and flowers of the nasturtium are often used in salads.
garlic
The sulfur compound allicin contained in fresh garlic also acts on the heat receptors in the mouth. Because allicin breaks down when heated, fried or cooked garlic is not spicy. In contrast to other substances, allicin acts on the receptors stimulated by both capsaicin and allyl mustard oil. However, garlic is used in the kitchen primarily for its taste, not for its spiciness.
onion
The sharpness of raw onions is due to the breakdown of propanthial S -oxide from isoalliin by a cell's own enzyme when the cell walls are destroyed . The volatile and reactive propanthial S -oxide also causes tear irritation.
ginger
The taste of the ginger is burning hot and spicy. Essential components are an essential oil , resin acids and neutral resin as well as gingerol , vanillylacetone and shogaol , which are responsible for the sharp taste of ginger.
More hot spices and plants
See also
literature
- Wilbur L. Scoville: Note on Capsicums . In: Journal of the American Pharmacists Association . Vol. 1, No. 5, 1912, pp. 453-454.
- Klaus Roth: The scale of the Wilbur Lincoln Scoville. Some like it spicy , In: Chemistry in our time , Volume 44, 2010, pp. 138–151.
- LJ Macpherson, BH Geierstanger, V. Viswanath, M. Bandell, SR Eid, S. Hwang, A. Patapoutian : The Pungency of Garlic: Activation of TRPA1 and TRPV1 in Response to Allicin. Curr Biol. May 24, 2005; 15 (10): pp. 929-934. pdf (English).
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d Entry on sharp taste. In: Römpp Online . Georg Thieme Verlag, accessed on May 23, 2019.
- ↑ The genetic basis of a plant-insect coevolutionarykey innovation Christopher W. Wheat et al. PNAS December 18, 2007, Vol. 104 (51) pages 20427-20431; https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0706229104 accessed on May 22, 2019
- ↑ Govindarajan, Sathyanarayana: Capsicum - Production, Technology, Chemistry, and Quality. Part V. Impact on Physiology, Pharmacology, Nutrition, and Metabolism; Structure, Pungency, Pain, and Desensitization Sequences . In: Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition . tape 29 , no. 6 , 1991, pp. 435-474 (English).
