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Capsicum:a Good Herb for Health
It's red color is partly due to its high vitamin A content. Capsicum has been used for decades as a catalyst for other herbs. Because Capsicum stimulants circulation and enhances blood flow, it is considered food for the circulatory system, a common condiment to the diet.
As a cardiovascular stimulant,Capsicum assists in lowering blood pressure and breaking down cholesterol buildup. The warming properties of Capsicum are useful for people suffering from poor circulation to the hands and feet and other related conditions.
Capsicum has been used as a digestive aid to ease intestinal inflammation,stimulate protective mucus membranes of the stomach, and also relieve pain caused by ulcers.
Capsicum is commonly used to buffer pain from other ailments,including arthritis,varicose veins,headaches,menstrual cramps and respiratory conditions such as asthma.
Archeologists estimate that in Mexico, Capsicum was used as a food as long as 9,000 years ago (Rumsfield and West, 1991). The medicinal use of a number of Capsicum species, including C. annuum by the Mayans, is described in Chichewicz and Thorpe (1996). They include the use of roots, leaves, as well as the fruits in applications for infections, fresh burns, respiratory complaints, earaches, and sores. Capsicum was used in weaning by the Navajo-Ramah, and has also been used by the Cherokee (Willard, 1991).
In folk medicine, Capsicum is regarded as an aphrodisiac, depurative, digestive, stomachic, carminative, antispasmodic, diaphoretic, antiseptic, counterirritant, rubefacient, stypic, and tonic. Internally, Capsicum has been used to treat asthma, pneumonia, diarrhea, cramps, colic, toothache, flatulent dyspepsia without inflammation; insufficiency of peripheral circulation; as a gargle for sore throat, chronic pharyngitis and laryngitis; and externally as a lotion or ointment to treat neuralgia, including rheumatic and arthritic pain, and unbroken chilblains (cold injuries) (Duke, 1985; Leung and Foster, 1996; Newall et al., 1996).
The root is an Indonesian folk-remedy for gonorrhea. Capsicum is used in central Africa as a calming medicine, and in Hawaii for backaches, rheumatism, and swollen feet. Regular ingestion of hot red pepper is recommended by some authors for anorexia, hemorrhoids, liver congestion, varicose veins, and vascular conditions (Duke, 1985). Pedersen (1994) states that "the most striking use of Capsicum is as a catalyst herb in nearly every herbal combination conceivable." He adds female complaints, athletic injury and thyroid imbalance as indications for herbalist applications of Capsicum.
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