CAPSICUM
Capsicum minimum, C. frutescens
COMMON NAMES: Cayenne, red pepper, bird pepper, African pepper.
FEATURES: This plant is indigenous to Asia, Africa, and the parts of the United States beyond the southern
line of Tennessee. The African bird pepper is the purest and the best known medically. It is a small,
oblong, scarlet, membranous pod, divided internally into two or three cells containing numerous flat,
white, reniform seeds. It has no odor; its taste is hot and acrid.
SOLVENTS: 98 percent alcohol, considerable extent vinegar, boiling water.
MEDICINAL PART: Fruit
BODILY INFLUENCE: Stimulant, tonic, carminative, diaphoretic, rubefacient, condiment.
USES: The stimulating effect of capsicum is the source of its internal effectiveness. Capsicum taken with
burdock, goldenseal, ginger, slippery elm, etc., will soon diffuse itself throughout the whole system,
equalizing the circulation in all diseases caused by obstruction of circulation. Unlike most of the
stimulants of allopathy, it is not narcotic.
It acts mainly on the circulation, having immediate effect on the heart and then extending to the
capillaries, toning the circulation without increasing the pulse.
Remember that it is an agent that is seldom used alone, as by itself it is soon extinguished. Cayenne is
useful in coughs, torpor of the kidneys, pneumonia, pleurisy, typhoid fever, and for cramps and pains in
the stomach and bowels causing perstaltic action of the parts previously contracted. Dr. R. Swinburne
Clymer has called it “the only natural stimulant worthwhile considering in diarrhea and dysentery with
bloody mucus stools and offensive breath.” Bleeding of the lungs is easily checked by the use of cayenne
and a vapour bath. By this method, circulation is promoted through the body, diminishing pressure on the
lungs and thus affording an opportunity for a coagulum to form around ruptured vessels. The unpleasant
feeling of indigestion or heartburn felt by some people after taking cayenne capsules or tablets will
disappear if followed by a cup of hot herb tea. Cayenne is usually not the cause of the unpleasantness. The
constitution, with all of its constructive ability, struggles against disease and occasions the unpleasant
feelings, and it is by this power of reaction that disease is overcome. Capsicum is not a cure-all and we
do not recommend its continual use (except for cooking) beyond the obtainable results.
EXTERNALLY: As a liniment for sprains, bruises, rheumatism, and neuralgia: