What to do if your hands burn while cutting spicy food

In life, many people like to eat chili peppers very much, but some people may buy chili peppers that are particularly spicy. At this time, people will cut off all the seeds and inner fibers of the chili peppers when cutting them. This can effectively reduce the spiciness, but in the process of cleaning this, the hands will get spicy. After the hands are spicy, the patient will feel that their hands are particularly burning. So what should you do if your hands are burning when cutting chili peppers?

The substance that produces the spicy taste in chili peppers is a type of capsaicin, which is collectively called capsaicin. When cutting peppers, capsaicin sticks to the skin, causing the capillaries to dilate, resulting in redness and heat of the skin, and accelerating the local metabolic rate. At the same time, it will stimulate the pain nerves, which is why we usually feel burning hands. It is generally believed that this is caused by capsaicin causing chemical changes in the nerve endings of the skin.

Capsaicin is soluble in ethanol and alkaline aqueous solutions, but insoluble in cold water. In industry, capsaicin is extracted from chili peppers using edible alcohol as an extractant. Therefore, based on this principle, in life, you can apply alcohol to dissolve the capsaicin on your hands. After cutting peppers, you can wipe your hands in one direction with an alcohol cotton ball, then wash your hands with clean water, and then dry them. Do this three times until the symptoms are relieved.

In daily life, you can apply alcohol to dissolve the capsaicin on your hands. After cutting peppers, you can wipe your hands in one direction with an alcohol cotton ball, then wash your hands with clean water, and then dry them. Do this three times until the symptoms are relieved.

In addition, you can also wash your hands with a small amount of vinegar. This is because vinegar is acidic and can neutralize capsaicin. If there is no medical alcohol or vinegar, washing your hands with hot water is also a good idea, because capsaicin will produce irritating evaporation under high temperature. Although it is not as effective as alcohol and vinegar, it is worse than cold water.

Finally, I'll tell you a trick. When cutting peppers, you can press the peppers with your fingertips instead of pinching them with your fingernails. This way, your hands won't get burned easily.