how to cool/relieve pepper burns

[perennial]

I was chopping one of the sweet peppers i grew which was next to
the habanero and my lips are on fire and swollen. I didn't even have a bite.

I don't think that i touched my face after chopping because i have no symptoms on my hands.

they did have lots of juice though, any help would be so nice sorry for the tpibgm but i'm holding an ice pack with the other hand and its only helping a bit,

i'm pretty positive that my peppers are sweet, but then again some wild child could have changed tags on them from hot to sweet at the nursery. or, has anyone had their peppers cross like this?

thanx

[luvrulz]

try eating some bread or drinking some milk.... nothing much helps mine but i had heard that might..... last time i did that, it took 3 days before my hands felt normal... and that's with 3 pairs of plastic gloves.

[mamakatinmd]

Oooo, I know that burn. Got some under my fingernails last week when chopping. Burned for awhile. Milk is supposed to help.

[Maura]

Whatever you do, don't use cold water. This closes the pores and keeps the nasties in (I once worked in a processing plant). Use very warm water to rinse, followed by a mild soap wash and then very warm water.

[doohap]

milk, milk, milk!

[perennial]

thanks - just came up here with a clothe soaked in milk,
seems to be helping. I definitely wash with warm water in a bit
too, as now my face is very sticky and yucky, but feeling better!

I think it was the juices in the air, as i have no burning on my hands, etc.,
Those things are lethal

thanks for the quick response.

[Susan Mary]

With oil and salt helps to cut the burn

[diane]

I keep FelsNapha soap (found in the laundry section) at my kitchen sink and chore washup sink. I cuts the oils of poison ivy and works on other oily messes. I once got the pepper juices on my skin and washed with that when it started burning and got relief. I think it is important that you get the oil off your skin. After you get it off, you can put aloeVera on it and it really takes the burn out. I keep an AloeVera just for burns. Cut off a piece and squeeze the juice onto a burn and it feels so much better. Doesn't matter if it is a chemical burn (like the pepper oil) or heat burn, it seems to really help a lot.

[dancingfatcat]

I wonder if vinegar would help neutralize the burn, I know it works for sunburn, just a thought.

[COSunflower]

I once cut up an orange with the same knife that another family member had cut up hot peppers with and left on the counter....my lips were blistered bad!!!! I second the Aloe Vera....I used it straight off the plant and it worked really good.

[culpeper]

Any dairy product can be used - milk, yoghurt, cream, ice-cream. Slather it on, bathe in it, drink it.

NEVER use water! It makes things many times worse.

Cucumber will also help, or its juice. Rub on slices, or blend to a mush and apply (or eat). You will almost always find cucumber being served as a sambal with hot Indian curries.

[perennial]

You all are great - vinegar didn't work probably because it "closes" pores
as someone as said cold water would do.

The milk worked fantastic! For a while there, my lips were looking like angelina joli's, but unfortunately i didn't have the bod.

Now all is back to normal, one little burn mark, but nothing stings anymore.

I didn't know a pepper could "cross" polinate to that level! Hubby doesn't
want me to get rid of the pepper plants, but if i ever have to cut them again, i may have to purchase a gas mask and special gloves - as i didn't even
eat any. Those peppers are a bio hazard and that's coming from someone who LOVES spicy things - the hotter the better.

[PD-Riverman]

Beat up egg whites works great---just remove egg yellow, whip up whites and rub it on what ever the pepper is burning. My son bit into a Habanero and was burning alive(he felt) I whipped up some egg whites and he put some in his mouth and sloshed it around good and spit it out--started cooling the burn off---in a minute or two the burn had stopped. My lip was on fire and I rubbed some on it and the burn stopped in a minute or two.

[CoonXpress]

Originally Posted by perennial

You all are great - vinegar didn't work probably because it "closes" pores
as someone as said cold water would do.

The milk worked fantastic! For a while there, my lips were looking like angelina joli's, but unfortunately i didn't have the bod.

Now all is back to normal, one little burn mark, but nothing stings anymore.

I didn't know a pepper could "cross" polinate to that level! Hubby doesn't
want me to get rid of the pepper plants, but if i ever have to cut them again, i may have to purchase a gas mask and special gloves - as i didn't even
eat any. Those peppers are a bio hazard and that's coming from someone who LOVES spicy things - the hotter the better.

Do you have any pics of the peppers?
Peppers can cross pollinate, but it would not show up on the currently growing plants.

[perennial]

i'll take a pic tomorrow and post. It even smells hot - i'm not kidding.

It was planted within 1 ft. or less of habaneros.

[vicker]

If you grow a not so hot pepper next to a hot pepper, the not so hot pepper will be ho I guess you learned that.

[insocal]

Yogurt.

There's something about the milk proteins that gloms onto the capsaicin and takes it away. It's why South Asians serve lassi and other milk products with their spicy curries.

[Queen Bee]

My sister loved HOT peppers and used bread soaked in milk to soothe her lips and mouth.. She said it worked wonders when the peppers were a little to hot!

[longrider]

One of the oh sooo very cool things I did while getting my undergrad degree in Molecular Biology was get some time with an Electron Microscope.

I wish i had a pic to show you some of the really small things in this world. A salt structure is a kind of cube. Sugar is multi dimensional too. Pepper is unique though.

A single pepper structure is a very sharp knife blade. They literally are stabbing your nerve endings causing the burning sensation. flushing with water is one way to vacuate the nerves. milk has fats in it which stick to or absorb the knife blades which makes it feel better.

Your own saliva has enzymes that will break down the knife blades in time. But as we all know time stands still when you have a habanero between the cheek and gum!

[perennial]

can you see it under a regular microscope - what strength would work. My
budding scientist has a decent microscope. Do we just take a small piece
of it to look at? It's worth a try anyway.