The Nobel Committee has awarded the 2021 Physiology and Medicine Nobel Prize to US scientists Ardem Patapoutian and David Julius for their discoveries of receptors for temperature and touch. They had used capsaicin to decipher their study on pain receptors.
The pungent ingredient in chilli peppers, which gives ‘hot taste’ to chillis is capsaicin. This formed the basis of this award-winning research and one which has an indirect connection with Allahabad University (AU) too.
A research group under Prof SI Rizvi in the Biochemistry department here has been engaged in understanding the non-neuronal effects of capsaicin for the last 15 years. This research group has published a large number of research papers on the physiological and biochemical effects of capsaicin.
“Capsaicin is a very interesting molecule. It binds to the same nerve endings on the skin which carry sensation of pain and also sensation of temperature. When capsaicin binds to these nerve endings, termed as nociceptors, the nerve is activated, and we experience a sense of ‘hot’ feeling. However, when capsaicin binds to nociceptors or pain receptors for a longer time the nerve becomes insensitive or numb,” prof Rizvi explained.
This property of capsaicin to make the nerves, which carry sensation of pain, numb has opened up possibilities to use this pungent compound to mitigate pain. It is also a common observation that food tastes hotter when it is at a higher temperature. This is because capsaicin’s effect is augmented by hot temperature, explained prof Rizvi.
{{/usCountry}}This property of capsaicin to make the nerves, which carry sensation of pain, numb has opened up possibilities to use this pungent compound to mitigate pain. It is also a common observation that food tastes hotter when it is at a higher temperature. This is because capsaicin’s effect is augmented by hot temperature, explained prof Rizvi.
{{/usCountry}}Prof Rizvi’s group at the AU has been engaged in research on the effects of capsaicin on the cell membrane. “We have explored a new dimension focused on the question as to why people in hot climatic regions eat more chillies,” he added.