What should I do if my hand hurts after touching a chili pepper?

Chili pepper is the most common ingredient in our lives. For people who love spicy food, they simply can’t live without it. The characteristic of chili pepper is that it is spicy and very irritating. Not only does it taste spicy to us, but when cooking, if we accidentally touch the chili pepper, our hands will also feel the spicy pain, which is sometimes even unbearable. So, what should you do if your hands feel burning after touching chili peppers?

To solve the problem of spicy peppers causing pain in hands, we must first understand the principle, and then we can find various coping methods based on the principle. Chili peppers can produce a stimulating effect, which is mainly due to the active ingredient capsaicin. Capsaicin is a biological alkali. The various methods of dealing with the skin burning caused by chili peppers are based on the material properties of capsaicin.

Bioalkali is not very soluble in water, but its solubility in hot water is often much greater than that in cold water. Therefore, you can soak your hands in hot water to dissolve most of the capsaicin on your hands and reduce the burning pain. It should be noted that after being injured by chili peppers, your hands will be very sensitive to hot water. It may be uncomfortable when you first soak them in hot water, but you must persist and soak them for a longer time, at least 15 minutes or more, to wash off the contaminated capsaicin. You cannot simply rinse your hands like you normally do. Use more hot water when soaking, rinse with hot water after soaking, and finally wipe your hands with a clean wet towel.

Bioalkalis are relatively soluble in organic solvents, so organic solvents can be used to wash off capsaicin on your hands. There are many organic solvents, and alcohol is the most common and commonly used one. You can repeatedly apply common disinfectant alcohol or edible alcohol. Note that you should apply along the direction of your fingertips. Without alcohol, soaking your hands in the white wine you drink everyday can also remove the spiciness. To achieve better results, you can warm the white wine before soaking.

Based on the principle of acid-base neutralization, acid can also be used to wash off capsaicin on your hands. Vinegar is indispensable in our daily life. It is best not to use ordinary white vinegar directly to wash your hands. You can only apply it on your hands or mix it with water to soak your hands. Otherwise, the high concentration of acetic acid will hurt your hands. You can add less water to aged vinegar.

You can also mash sour fruits and apply them to your hands repeatedly to remove the spiciness, but the effect is not as direct and fast as acetic acid. Sour fruits such as sour lemons and sour carambolas are good at removing spiciness.

The methods described above are all about removing contaminated capsaicin to relieve pain. If the spiciness is not serious, you can also use the relief method. This method cannot remove the capsaicin, but only relieves the pain. After the relief period, the human body has adapted and the capsaicin has reacted almost enough, so it will basically be fine. If there is a lot of capsaicin in the body, relief may fail.

Ice compresses, applying peppermint, essential oil and cooling oil, and soaking in ice water can all relieve pain.

Some very spicy peppers, such as the devil pepper, are not only painful if they burn your hands, but severe burns may also cause peeling and ulceration of the hands, affecting their appearance. Therefore, after removing the capsaicin, some care is required to reduce peeling.

You can apply aloe vera juice or egg white mixed with saltpeter. Add 5 grams of potassium nitrate to one egg white, mix well, and let it stand for 10 minutes before use.

Many people believe that detergents can wash away capsaicin. After their hands are burned by chili peppers, they often wash their hands repeatedly with large amounts of detergent. In fact, most detergents cannot wash away capsaicin, but may aggravate the injury to your hands. Therefore, after being burned by hot peppers, especially severe burns from high spiciness, try to avoid washing your hands with laundry detergent, dishwashing liquid, soap, hand sanitizer, etc. within 24 hours.