THE FOLKLORE OF PLANTS: Chile Pepper

Lisa Karen Miller

“It doesn’t matter who you are, or what you’ve done, or what you think you can do. There’s a confrontation with destiny awaiting you. Somewhere, there’s a chile pepper you cannot eat.”

                                                          Daniel Pinkwater, “A Hot Time in Nairobi”

          Wilbur Scoville is best remembered for creating the scale by which the heat of chiles is measured.  The bell pepper clocks in at zero Scoville units, the jalepeno at 5,000, and the habanero at 300,000.  Capsaicin, the alkaloid which causes the sensation of heat, is now used to treat arthritis, inflammation, headaches, and a host of other aches and pains.

          How can this be? Let’s examine the pain response.  When you bite into a hot chile, your nerve endings scream “I’m in pain!”  The brain responds by releasing endorphins, which produce that lovely sense of well-being that chile fanatics refer to as the “hot sauce high.” It also clears the sinuses and is good for the heart.

          It’s one of the many plants that can be burned to rid your house of vermin.  You know how it feels when you get chile smoke or steam in your eye?  A thousand times worse for a tiny bug. If they’re soft-bodied, it can enter through their skin as well. Yikes.

          In addition to its medicinal and household uses, it reputedly has the power to break hexes and ward off evil spirits. All those strings of chiles I saw in the Southwest and Mexico make more than just culinary sense now.

From Fieryfoods.com, “In a ritual from Coahuila, Mexico, chiles are instrumental in countering the effects of ‘salting,’ a ritual to cast a spell on a person to cause them harm. Such witchcraft is called ‘maleficio’ in Mexico. To cast the spell, the evildoer gathers dirt from the grave of a person who died a violent death. Then he or she gathers salt from the homes of three widows, or from the homes of three women named Jane (“Juana”). The salt is mixed with the soil and is sprinkled in front of the door of the victim.”

Chiles can also be used to cleanse children of the evil eye. Spray the child’s face with a mixture of rue, then rub the feet with brandy mixed with crushed peppers.

Go ahead, confront your destiny – eat that chile. And have a pain-free Cinco de Mayo.

© Copyright 2023 Lisa Karen Miller