Subject: Re: Carqueja for stomach upset - Capsicum alternative

From: G Pollack <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 7 Sep 1995 04:28:20 -0700

CAPSICUM    As long as you're willing to brave a nasty oral effect for the
            soothing of your stomach, have you considered Capsicum 
(cayenne pepper)?  Much easier to obtain worldwide, Capsicum is the only
plant to my knowledge that tastes hot without being an irritant to tissue.
Herbalists for a long time have written of its tonic and curative uses,
-- even prescribing it for ulcer treatment!

It can be taken in capsules to avoid the warming of the palate.  A warming
effect is still noticed after the capsule dissolves in stomach fluids.

With vivid sense of comedy, a man I met long ago described his disbelief
that cayenne would do anything but hurt his ulcer further, but at the 
insistence of his wife he resigned himself to guzzling a hefty dose in
water ... certain it was a form of suicide but no worse than
living with his aching gut.  He got his first comfortable sleep
that night however, and felt really quite chipper after a few weeks of
taking it regularly in capsules.

Be precautioned though:
Cayenne also imparts warm moments beyond the stomach sometimes. 

Also note that not all hot red pepper is Capsicum.

Best of health to you!

Gary Pollack  <[email-masked]>  Eugene, Oregon
-------------------------------------------

On Wed, 23 Aug 1995, Paul Abraham wrote:

> Date: Wed, 23 AUG 95 15:04:53 GMT 
> From: Paul Abraham <[email-masked]>
> Newgroups: alt.folklore.herbs
> Subject: Carqueja 
> 
> Does anyone know the herb that in Brazilian Portuguese is called "carqueja"?
> It is taken in tea form and is claimed to provide relief from stomach
> disorders (and on the basis of the worse it tastes the more good its doing it
> must have some benefit!).
> I'd like to find out what, if it is known in the English speaking world, it is
> called in English and if it can be obtained in the UK.
> 
> Thanks
> 
> Paul Abraham
> [email-masked]
> 
>

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From: [email-masked] (Steven Casper)
Date: Mon, 11 Sep 1995 13:11:15 -0100

Gary,

Just a bit of information; Capsicum is the genus name of peppers.  Cayanne
is a variety of Capsicum frutecens as is Tabasco.  All members of Capsicum
contain, to varying degrees, capsaicin which imparts pungency.  --Steve

---

From: [email-masked] (Beverly)
Date: Thu, 14 Sep 1995 00:06:11 GMT

>effect is still noticed after the capsule dissolves in stomach fluids.

A few of years ago I was making a salad and cutting some Vadalia
onions (slimey little suckers).  The very sharp knife slipped and -
almost off with my finger.  The blood was coming out like Mt. Helena,
just spurting all over the place and the tip of my finger was hanging.
A couple of days before I had been reading about cayenne stopping
bleeding.  So, out of the refrigerator came a bottle of cayenne and
some aloe vera juice ( I had decided to make a paste and thought aloe
would be healing.)  I made up the paste of aloe vera juice and cayenne
(very thick) and applied some sterile gauze over to keep the paste in
;lace.

The gushing of the blood stoped immediately and so did the pain and
stinging.  It bled lightly for a few hours then...nothing.  It healed
completely in a week with no scars, no pain and no need for stiches.