7 ms·
Interestingly, that very irritant is now the key to the widespread success of some pepper species by the way of a specific species of mammals.
by nkrisc 2y ago
Interestingly, that very irritant is now the key to the widespread success of some pepper species by the way of a specific species of mammals.
- tofof 2y agoOh? Which pepper species and carrier mammal are involved here? Edit: DERP duh you mean humans. :D Literally made the comparison without recognizing it, too. /Edit Not challenging you, just curious and not immediately finding the answer myself with a quick search. The capsaicin receptor is TRPV1, which is a critical protein for thermoregulation and detection of being burned. In other words, it's not just a quick and easy evolutionary path to have a mutation break the receptor for capsaicin and now be immune to the taste. Obviously the animals could evolve behavior or even simply learn as juveniles to tolerate or even enjoy the taste (as many humans do). There are some other interesting things that happen with avian carriers, like reductions in fungal infection and attractiveness to other predators (ants). https://www.washington.edu/news/2013/06/21/airborne-gut-action-primes-wild-chili-pepper-seeds/ https://www.washington.edu/news/2013/06/21/airborne-gut-acti...
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- jumhyn 2y agoI believe it’s a cheeky reference to humans intentionally cultivating hot peppers specifically because of their capsaicin-producing quality. :)
- grimgrin 2y agoRecently Howtown talked about some of the theories: https://youtu.be/dutpBSKj8JY?t=196 https://youtu.be/dutpBSKj8JY?t=196 It looks at a couple non-competing (iirc) theories
- bobmcnamara 2y agoI do declare I thought it was a cheeky reference to those tomato plants that grown down by old railroad tracks. You see a long time ago, someone at a tomato. Could've been a slice in a cold sandwich. Could've been a fresh one, maybe with A little cheese and pepper. But chili just won't do. Neither would spaghetti. Then, before we had such regulations as we do today, they deposited that tomato seed, post digestion, in the train lavatory toilet. Being back then as it was, the tomato seed and associated fertilizer was dropped from the train car to the track ballast below where it germinated. It's the same process where researchers deposit tomatoes on new volcanic islands. You know what they say: when you gotta go, you gotta go.
- 14 2y agoI mentioned in another comment about growing a Carolina Reaper last summer and trying it with my dad and 13 year old son. My dad and I instantly knew how bad the next half hour or so of our life was about to be. My son also found it hot but no more then 5 minutes later comes out of his room (after we all chewed a pepper and spat it out he went to his room with a slurpee) he casually walks out and says dad is it okay for me to have a shower. He didn't have his slurpee and really did not seemed bothered by the experience at all. Me on the other hand was in insanity pain. Could not stop running water over my tongue or suck on ice and suffered for at least a half hour. I just couldn't believe he took it so well. My only thought was he must not be so sensitive or lacks something like the receptors that detect it. After writing all that I did a search about people with low TRPV1 receptors and found an interesting study done on a couple people lacking functional TRPV1 channels. They were insensitive to the application of capsaicin to the mouth and skin. Furthermore they had an elevated heat pain threshold as well as an elevated cold pain threshold. Why I found this interesting is because my same son who barely reacted to this insanely hot pepper I can never get to wear a jacket to school. He does not mind the cold at all. He will if we were up a mountain or something but he always complains the car is too hot when I am cold. Anyways not sure he lacks function TRPV1 receptors but still interesting to think about. Article linked below. https://www.jci.org/articles/view/153558 https://www.jci.org/articles/view/153558
- throwup238 2y ago> Could not stop running water over my tongue or suck on ice and suffered for at least a half hour. Capsaicin is a nonpolar molecule that is fat soluble and hydrophobic, so running water over your tongue either has no impact on the problem or makes it worse. You want to consume anything with fat like milk or sour cream or even pure olive oil which will dissolve the capsaicin and carry it down your digestive tract. For something as strong as a reaper challenge, you’ll want to gargle olive oil because the mechanical action of the bubbles helps break up anything coated on your tongue like soap does when washing your hands. Alcohol based mouth wash also works as does ethanol (Everclear) in general. Edible surfactants and emulsifiers work best but unless you like drinking blended raw eggs or mustard, that might not work for you. To help when it comes out the other end: drink lots of dairy because the casein helps and eat a bunch of starch (rice, potatoes, bread, etc) and bananas, and stay well hydrated.
- cjbgkagh 2y agoOne of many in a long list of evolved pesticides
- BurningFrog 2y agoOthers are nicotine, caffeine and cocaine. What else? EDIT: and morphine!
- mofunnyman 2y agoThose are resticides.
- IIAOPSW 2y agoI don't care what you call it, if it ends in "ine" its good enough for me.
- tonymillion 2y agoStrychnine side note: It kills you by making all your muscles tense so strongly that you can't breath any more. The muscles in your face tense in a way that it gives you whats called a "Strychnine Smile".
- bobthepanda 2y agoIt is also somewhat anti microbial, so it became useful for food preservation. See: kimchi
- cnity 2y agoThough you're right, in kimchi the primary preservative is initially the saltiness and then later the low pH caused by lactobacilli producing lactic acids.
- bobthepanda 2y agoI don't dispute that. My understanding is that the introduction of chili allowed a reduction in salt content, which was important in an era where salt was expensive to produce.
- cnity 2y agoI didn't know that, that's really interesting thanks!
- cyberax 2y agoYou can make fermented cabbage without any hot peppers. It's common in Slavic cultures.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- dunham 2y agoI'm guessing it was common in Korea before chilis were brought back from the americas.
- bobthepanda 2y agomy understanding of the development was that chili was used to cut the amount of salt, which wasn't cheap to produce
- RobotToaster 2y agoReminds me of the theory that wheat domesticated humans.
- fsckboy 2y agodriving down the road I was inspired to taste some fresh wheat grains in a field: tasted a lot like flour. what is that "thing"? an attractive tasty flour nodule? the energy yolk to the seed's egg?
- meindnoch 2y agoIt's called endosperm. A bunch of starch that nourishes the embryo when the seed germinates.
- nkrisc 2y agoBasically, yes. Though wheat didn’t look like that initially. We’ve cultivated it to become like that over thousands of years. Same for corn (maize). There is no naturally occurring plant that looks like what we’ve turned it into.
- eru 2y agoWild potatoes look pretty close to some domesticated potatoes I had. Also I had lots of wild berries (of various species) in forests, and they look pretty much like the berries you can find in a garden. (Though probably not like the berries you can get in a supermarket?) Wild grass also looks pretty much like some of the domesticated variety. (Well, some varieties do.)
- thayne 2y agoBeing delicious to humans is a pretty good evolutionary advantage. Although, not necessarily good for the longevity of individuals of that species, see, for example, cattle.