Home > Anti-aging Research > Cayenne/Capsicum (Capsicum frutescens).

Cayenne/Capsicum (Capsicum frutescens)

Specific Recommendations:

• Capsicum at Amazon.com and iHerb
• Capsimax® at Amazon.com

News & Research:

• New study reviews anti-cancer activity of sustained release capsaicin formulations - Science Daily, 5/4/22 - "The nutritional agent capsaicin displayed robust growth-inhibitory activity in a diverse array of human cancers. However, the clinical applications of capsaicin as a viable anti-cancer agent were hindered by three factors -- poor solubility, low bioavailability and spicy flavor ... Oral use of capsaicin is associated with unfavorable side effects such as stomach cramps, nausea, a burning sensation in the gut and gastrointestinal irritation ... A strategy to overcome these drawbacks is the development of different delivery systems, such as encapsulating capsaicin in long-acting sustained release drug delivery systems could allow for more consistent capsaicin levels that could be more efficient as anti-cancer agents" - See capsicum at Amazon.com.
• Spicy molecule inhibits growth of breast cancer cells - Science Daily, 12/21/16 - "The researchers activated the TRPV1 receptor in the cell culture with capsaicin or helional, by adding the substances to the culture for a period of several hours or days. As a result, the cancer cells divided more slowly. Moreover, the treatment caused tumour cells to die in larger numbers. The surviving cells were no longer able to move as quickly as heretofore; this implies that their ability to form metastases in the body was impeded ... If we could switch on the TRPV1 receptor with specific drugs, this might constitute a new treatment approach for this type of cancer" - See capsaicin supplements at Amazon.com.
• Hot pepper compound could help hearts - Science Daily, 3/27/12 - "The team found, for instance, that capsaicin and a close chemical relative boost heart health in two ways. They lower cholesterol levels by reducing accumulation of cholesterol in the body and increasing its breakdown and excretion in the feces. They also block action of a gene that makes arteries contract, restricting the flow of blood to the heart and other organs. The blocking action allows more blood to flow through blood vessels"
• Chili peppers may come with blood pressure benefits - Science Daily, 8/3/10 - "We found that long-term dietary consumption of capsaicin, one of the most abundant components in chili peppers, could reduce blood pressure in genetically hypertensive rats"
• New evidence that chili pepper ingredient fights fat - Science Daily, 6/2/10 - "The capsaicin-treated rats lost 8 percent of their body weight and showed changes in levels of at least 20 key proteins found in fat. The altered proteins work to break down fats. "These changes provide valuable new molecular insights into the mechanism of the antiobesity effects of capsaicin,""
• Chilli extract may prevent obesity complications: Study - Nutra USA, 10/5/09
• 8 natural pain relievers - MSNBC, 9/14/08 - "Capsaicin: For arthritis, shingles, or neuropathy ... InflaThera or Zyflamend: For arthritis ... Aquamin: For osteoarthritis ... SAM-e (S adenosylmethionine): For osteoarthritis ... Fish oil: For joint pain from arthritis or autoimmune disorders ... Methylsulfonyl-methane (MSM): For osteoarthritis"
• Fiery Pepper Fatal for Fat Cells? - WebMD, 3/6/07
• Red Pepper: Hot Stuff For Fighting Fat? - Science Daily, 3/5/07
• 3 Herbal Medicines May Ease Back Pain - WebMD, 4/18/06 - "A 60-milligram daily dose of devil's claw also appeared to cut back pain as much as a 12.5-milligram daily dose of Vioxx, a painkiller no longer on the market due to a rise in the risk of cardiovascular events -- such as heart attack and stroke -- in some patients"
• Pepper Component Hot Enough To Trigger Suicide In Prostate Cancer Cells - Science Daily, 3/19/06 - "Capsaicin induced approximately 80 percent of prostate cancer cells growing in mice to follow the molecular pathways leading to apoptosis. Prostate cancer tumors treated with capsaicin were about one-fifth the size of tumors in non-treated mice"
• Spicy Spin on Treating Prostate Cancer - WebMD, 3/15/06 - "Capsaicin prompted cancer cells to die and curbed tumor growth ... Capsaicin was also linked to lower levels of prostate specific antigen (PSA)"
• Pepper extract could stop prostate cancer growth - Nutra USA, 3/15/06 - "capsaicin has a profound inhibiting effect on the growth of prostate cancer cells in vitro and in vivo , inducing apoptosis [programmed cell death] of prostate cancer cell lines"
• Fiery Hot Therapy Improves Asthma - WebMD, 5/25/04
• Topical Capsaicin Confers Moderate to Poor Pain Reduction for Neuropathic and Musculoskeletal Disorders - Doctor's Guide, 3/23/04
• Capsaicin Patch Eases Postherpetic Neuralgia Pain - Medscape, 4/3/03
• Women Rate Capsaicin Pain Stimulus as More Intense than Men - Doctor's Guide, 8/22/02
• Topical Capsaicin 0.075 Percent Best Choice For Double Blinded Studies - Doctor's Guide, 8/21/02
• Cayenne Is A Hot Therapeutic Ticket - Functional Foods & Nutraceuticals, 7/02

Abstracts:

• Chili pepper extends lifespan in a concentration-dependent manner and confers cold resistance on Drosophila melanogaster cohorts by influencing specific metabolic pathways - Food Funct 2022 Jul 17 - "Recent prospective cohort studies showed that the regular use of chili pepper improves healthspan in humans. Indeed, chili pepper fruits contain phenolic substances which are structurally similar to those that show anti-aging properties ... Chili powder added to food in concentrations of 0.04%-0.12% significantly extended median lifespan in fruit fly cohorts of both genders by 9% to 13%. However, food supplemented with 3% chili powder shortened lifespan of male cohorts by 9%. Lifespan extension was accompanied by a decrease in age-independent mortality (i.e., death in early ages). The metabolic changes caused by consumption of chili-supplemented food had a pronounced dependence on gender. A characteristic of both fruit fly sexes that ate chili-supplemented food was an increased resistance to cold shock. Flies of both sexes had lower levels of hemolymph glucose when they ate food supplemented with low concentrations of chili powder, as compared with controls. However, males fed on food with 3% chili had lower levels of storage lipids and pyruvate reducing activity of lactate dehydrogenase compared with controls. Females fed on this food showed lower activities of hexokinase and pyruvate kinase, as well as lower ADP/O ratios, compared with control flies" - See capsicum at Amazon.com.
• Anti-invasive and anti-metastatic activity of capsaicin and natural capsaicin-like compounds in lung adenocarcinoma - FASEB J 2022 May - "Lung adenocarcinoma (LAC) accounts for about 65% of all non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) cases. A considerable proportion of LAC patients present (in the clinic) with local and distant metastasis at the time of their diagnosis. One of the earliest events of the metastatic pathway is the invasion of malignant cells through the surrounding extracellular basement membrane into the neighboring blood vessels and lymph nodes ... Capsaicin is the pungent ingredient of chili peppers. Published reports have revealed that capsaicin inhibits the invasion and metastasis of several types of human cancers including melanoma, prostate cancer, and cholangiosarcoma ... capsaicin inhibits the invasion of human LAC cells via the TRPV6 receptor and the tyrosine phosphatase activity pathway" - See capsicum at Amazon.com.
• Capsaicin Attenuates Arterial Calcification Through Promoting SIRT6-Mediated Deacetylation and Degradation of Hif1α (Hypoxic-Inducible Factor-1 Alpha) - Hypertension 2022 Mar 2 - "Sustained Hif1α (hypoxic-inducible factor-1 alpha) accumulation plays a central role in osteogenic transdifferentiation and subsequent calcification. Capsaicin, the potent agonist of TRPV1 (transient receptor potential vanilloid type 1), was found to mitigate hypoxic-related injury and reverse phenotypic switch of vascular smooth muscle cells. However, its role in arterial calcification and the underlying mechanisms remain unexplored ... Capsaicin facilitates deacetylation and degradation of Hif1α by upregulating SIRT6, which inhibits osteogenic transdifferentiation and protects against arterial calcification"
• Chili pepper intake and all-cause and disease-specific mortality - Int J Vitam Nutr Res 2022 Jan 18 - "Chili pepper has been used for the treatment and prevention of multiple diseases. This may be due to its abundance of bioactive components, such as carotenoids, which are well known for their antioxidant properties. To date, several prospective cohort studies have examined the association between chili pepper intake and mortality, but the results have not been consistent. This study aimed to clarify the association between chili pepper intake and all-cause and disease-specific mortality using a meta-analysis ... Compared to none or rare consumption of chili pepper, consumption of chili pepper (ever or more than once a week) could significantly reduce the risk of all-cause mortality (summary adjusted HR: 0.87, 95% CI: 0.85, 0.90), CVD-specific mortality (summary adjusted HR: 0.89, 95% CI: 0.85, 0.93), and cancer-specific mortality (summary adjusted HR: 0.92, 95% CI: 0.88, 0.97). There was no significant between-study heterogeneity in the analyses (all-cause mortality: I2=0.7%, P=0.389; CVD-specific mortality: I2=21.8%, P=0.280; cancer-specific mortality: I2=0.0%, P=0.918)"
• Capsaicin and Its Effects on Body Weight - J Am Coll Nutr 2021 Aug 12 - "Capsaicin is a bioactive compound found in the fruits (i.e., peppers) of the plant genus Capsicum, which is widely used in many cultures. Besides many health effects of this compound, it can also be effective in body weight control through various mechanisms such as regulating lipolysis in adipocytes, increasing the feeling of satiety, stimulating energy expenditure, and reducing energy intake ... Capsaicin can decrease hunger through hormones in the gastrointestinal tract ... Capsaicin can increase energy expenditure through brown adipose tissue ... Capsaicin can increase lipolysis in white adipose tissue"
• Chronic capsiate supplementation increases fat-free mass and upper body strength but not the inflammatory response to resistance exercise in young untrained men: a randomized, placebo-controlled and double-blind study - J Int Soc Sports Nutr 2021 Jun 21 - "Acute capsaicinoid and capsinoid supplementation has endurance and resistance exercise benefits ... Twenty untrained men were randomized to ingest 12 mg Capsiate (CAP) or placebo in a parallel, double-blind design ... Chronic Capsiate supplementation combined with resistance training during short period (6 weeks) increased fat-free mass and upper body strength but not inflammatory response and performance in young untrained men" - See capsicum at Amazon.com and iHerb.
• The Beneficial Effects of Red Sun-Dried Capsicum annuum L. cv Senise Extract with Antioxidant Properties in Experimental Obesity are Associated with Modulation of the Intestinal Microbiota - Mol Nutr Food Res 2020 Dec 10 - "Mice fed a high fat diet (HFD) were orally treated with an extract from these peppers (CAE) (1, 10 and 25 mg/kg/day). It promoted weight loss and improved plasma markers related to glucose and lipid metabolisms. CAE also ameliorated obesity-associated systemic inflammation reducing the expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines in adipose and hepatic tissues and improving the expression of different markers involved in the gut epithelial barrier function. These effects were associated with a modulation of the intestinal microbiome, which appears altered"
• Effects of Capsaicin Coadministered with Eicosapentaenoic Acid on Obesity-Related Dysregulation in High-Fat-Fed Mice - Biol Pharm Bull. 2017;40(9):1581-1585 - "Obesity-induced inflammation contributes to the development of metabolic disorders such as insulin resistance, type 2 diabetes, fatty liver disease, and cardiovascular disease. In this study, we investigated whether the combination of eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and capsaicin could protect against high-fat diet (HFD)-induced obesity and related metabolic disorders ... our study suggests that the combination of EPA and capsaicin might be beneficial for delaying the progression of obesity-related metabolic dysregulation and subsequent complications"
• Effects of twelve weeks of capsaicinoid supplementation on body composition, appetite and self-reported caloric intake in overweight individuals - Appetite. 2017 Feb 21 - "These data suggest that H-CAP supplementation reduces self-reported energy intake after 12 weeks of supplementation, and L-CAP supplementation also reduces waist: hip ratio" - [Nutra USA] - See Capsimax® at Amazon.com.
• Capsaicinoids Supplementation Reduces Appetite and Body Circumferences in Healthy Men and Women A Placebo Controlled Randomized Double Blind Study - The FASEB Journal Mar 2016 - "randomly assigned by fat mass to ingest either CAP (2mg CAP, CX1 or 4mg CAP, CX2 [CX, Capsimax®, OmniActive Health Technologies Ltd.]) or placebo (corn starch, PLA) for 12 weeks ... baseline (T1), 6 weeks (T2) and 12 weeks (T3) ... Waist: hip ratio measurements showed a main effect for time (p = 0.034) with post-hoc tests revealing a significant (p = 0.024) decrease in CX1 from T1 to T2. Appetite questionnaire responses indicated a significant main effect for time from T1 to T2 (p = 0.004) and T1 to T3 (p = 0.001) suggesting supplementation of CAP reduced appetite" - [Nutra USA]
• Synergistic anti-cancer activity of Capsaicin and 3,3'-Diindolylmethane in human colorectal cancer - J Agric Food Chem. 2015 Apr 15 - "The present study suggests capsaicin and DIM work synergistically to inhibit cell proliferation and induce apoptosis in colorectal cancer through modulating transcriptional activity of NF-κB, p53 and target genes associated with apoptosis" - See capsaicin supplements at Amazon.com and diindolylmethane at Amazon.com.
• Dietary Capsaicin Ameliorates Pressure Overload-Induced Cardiac Hypertrophy and Fibrosis Through the Transient Receptor Potential Vanilloid Type 1 - Am J Hypertens. 2014 May 23 - "Dietary capsaicin plays a protective role in hypertension, atherosclerosis, obesity, and hyperlipidemia through activating the transient receptor potential vanilloid type 1 (TRPV1), a nonselective cation channel ... Our results suggest that dietary capsaicin protects against cardiac hypertrophy and fibrosis in pressure overload mice through TRPV1"
• Antitumor Activity of Capsaicin on Human Colon Cancer Cells in Vitro and Colo 205 Tumor Xenografts in Vivo - J Agric Food Chem. 2010 Nov 17 - "capsaicin induced cytotoxic effects in a time- and dose-dependent manner and increased reactive oxygen species (ROS) and Ca(2+) but decreased the level of mitochondrial membrane potential (ΔΨ(m)) in colo 205 cells. Data from Western blotting analysis indicated that the levels of Fas, cytochrome c, and caspases were increased, leading to cell apoptosis. Capsaicin decreased the levels of anti-apoptotic proteins such as Bcl-2 and increased the levels of pro-apoptotic proteins such as Bax. Capsaicin-induced apoptosis in colo 205 cells was also done through the activations of caspase-8, -9 and -3. In vivo studies in immunodeficient nu/nu mice bearing colo 205 tumor xenografts showed that capsaicin effectively inhibited tumor growth. The potent in vitro and in vivo antitumor activities of capsaicin suggest that capsaicin might be developed for the treatment of human colon cancer"