What should I do if my hands get burned by cutting hot peppers?

In daily life, chili pepper is a common condiment. At the same time, proper consumption of chili pepper not only contains certain vitamins and nutrients, but also can increase human appetite to a certain extent. Especially for some friends who like to eat chili pepper, it is an indispensable necessity. So, what should you do if your hands get burned by cutting hot peppers?

When cutting peppers, capsaicin sticks to the skin, causing the capillaries to dilate, causing the skin to become red and hot, and accelerating the local metabolic rate. At the same time, it will stimulate the pain nerves, which is why we usually feel burning hands. In industry, capsaicin is extracted from chili peppers using edible alcohol as an extractant.

Therefore, 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 addition, you can also wash your hands with a small amount of vinegar to prevent them from feeling irritated. This is because the substance in chili peppers that produces the spicy taste is called capsaicin, and vinegar is acidic, which can neutralize the uncomfortable feeling caused by capsaicin.

Moreover, it is also a good idea to wash your hands with hot water, because capsaicin will produce irritating evaporation under high temperature. Although the effect is not so obvious relatively speaking, it is better than cold water. Because capsaicin easily adheres to around the pores and is soluble in alkaline solutions, you can also put soap on your hands and scrub them vigorously for 5 minutes to greatly relieve the symptoms.

Usually, when we cook, we will inevitably come into contact with chili peppers. Especially when cutting peppers, your hands will feel the peppers are burning. In addition to the methods introduced above, when cutting peppers, you can also press the peppers with the tips of your fingers instead of pinching them with your fingernails. This can effectively avoid the phenomenon of burning your hands when cutting peppers.