Capsaicin can be toxic. Capsaicin prevents nerve cells from communicating with each other by blocking the production of certain neurotransmitters and at high concentrations it can cause apoptosis. So eating a tablespoon of pure capsaicin could render your tongue permanently damaged, not to mention the lining of your esophagus; your stomach and small and large intestines could also be damaged, though the mucosal lining on the inside of your stomach may help to blunt the damage. If there were significant enough damage to the gut epithelium you could potentially get leakage of your gut contents into the surrounding tissues leading to abdominal abcesses forming and eventual septicemia. I’d also imagine the pain upon it exitting you would be considerable. LD50 in mice is 47.2 mg/kg according to wikipedia.
Posted on: Sun, 16 Nov 2014 03:36:09 +0000
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