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and often intense heat is capsaicin, with the chemical formula C 18 H 27 O 3 N and a structure that has similarities to that of piperine:

    Both structures have a nitrogen atom (N) next to a carbon atom (C) doubly bonded to oxygen (O), and both have a single aromatic ring with a chain of carbon atoms. That both molecules are “hot” is perhaps not surprising if the hot sensation results from the shape of the molecule.
    A third “hot” molecule that also fits this theory of molecular shape is zingerone (C 11 H 14 O), found in the underground stem of the ginger plant, Zingiber officinale. Although smaller than either piperine or capsaicin (and, most people would argue, not as hot), zingerone also has an aromatic ring with the same HO and H 3 C-O groups attached as in capsaicin, but with no nitrogen atom.

    Why do we eat such pain-causing molecules? Perhaps for some good chemical reasons. Capsaicin, piperine, and zingerone increase the secretion of saliva in our mouths, aiding digestion. They are also thought to stimulate the movement of food through the bowel. Unlike taste buds that in mammals are mainly on the tongue, pain nerves, able to detect the chemical messages from these molecules, occur in other parts of the human body. Have you ever inadvertently rubbed your eyes while chopping up a chili pepper? Workers who harvest hot peppers need to wear rubber gloves and eye protection against the chili oil containing capsaicin molecules.
    The heat we feel from peppercorns appears to be directly proportional to the amount of pepper in the food. Heat from a chili pepper, on the other hand, can be deceptive. Color, size, and region of origin all affect the “hotness” of a chili pepper. None of these guides are reliable; while small peppers are often associated with heat, large peppers are not always the mildest. Geography does not necessarily supply a clue, although the world’s hottest chili peppers are said to grow in parts of East Africa. Heat generally increases as a chili is dried.
    We often experience a feeling of satisfaction or contentment after eating a fiery meal, and this feeling may be due to endorphins, opiate-like compounds that are produced in the brain as the body’s natural response to pain. This phenomenon may account for some people’s seeming addiction to hot spicy food. The hotter the chili, the more the pain, so the greater the trace amounts of endorphins produced and ultimately the greater the pleasure.
    Apart from paprika, which became well established in Hungarian food like goulash, the chili pepper did not invade the food of Europe the way it did African and Asian cuisine. For Europeans, piperine from the peppercorn remained the hot molecule of choice. Portuguese domination of Calicut and thus control of the pepper trade continued for about 150 years, but by the early seventeenth century the Dutch and the English were taking over. Amsterdam and London became the major pepper trading ports in Europe.
    The East India Company—or to give the formal name by which it was incorporated in 1600, the Governor and Company of Merchants of London Trading into the East Indies—was formed to gain a more active role for England in the East Indian spice trade. The risks associated with financing a voyage to India that would return with a shipload of pepper were high, so merchants initially bid for “shares” of a voyage, thus limiting the amount of potential loss for any one individual. Eventually this practice turned into buying shares of the company itself and thus could be considered responsible for the beginning of capitalism. It may be only a bit of a stretch to say that piperine, which surely nowadays must be considered a relatively insignificant chemical compound, was responsible for the beginnings of today’s complex economic structure of the world stock markets.

THE LURE OF SPICES
    Historically, pepper was not the only spice of great value. Nutmeg and cloves