Why do my hands feel hot when I cut chili peppers?

It is common to feel a burning sensation on your hands when cutting peppers. This is mainly because the capsaicin in the peppers causes chemical transformation in the nerve endings of the skin. You can effectively improve the condition of waxy hands by scrubbing them repeatedly with vinegar or washing your hands with soap.

1. It will cause the capillaries to dilate, resulting in redness and fever of the skin, and accelerate 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.

2. 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.

3. Scrub repeatedly with medical alcohol or vinegar

Capsaicin is soluble in ethanol and alkaline aqueous solutions, but insoluble in cold water. Based on this principle, we can understand why the burning sensation cannot be washed away with cold water. Correspondingly, alcohol can dissolve capsaicin on your hands, and vinegar can neutralize capsaicin. If you don't have medical alcohol, you can use some white wine instead.

4. Wash your hands with soap and water

The principle is the same as above, alkaline soapy water can dissolve capsaicin on your hands.

5. Apply some toothpaste

Still following the above principle, most toothpastes are alkaline and can dissolve capsaicin on your hands.