The goodness of chillies

Many years ago, while still a student, I had learnt in a casual conversation with a very wise and experienced person that in his younger days he used to imbibe chillies during cholera epidemics as a preventive measure. Much later, I realised that there was a fair degree of wisdom in that.

Sometime back, scientists and poultry farmers in the UK realised that half the poultry being sold in the UK were contaminated with salmonella, the notorious bacteria that causes food poisoning. With the problem of antibiotic resistance looming large, a search for natural antibiotics was initiated. The natural approach to reducing the bugs was to add chillies to the diet of the poultry. Surprisingly, the addition of the hot stuff actually reduced the bugs to half! It seems possible that very soon this spice could emerge as the panacea for the poultry industry. Human data also seems to comply with the findings that chillies are a good source of natural antibiotics.

I have since developed a healthy respect for chillies and have learnt to accept with some degree of comfort their ubiquitous presence in Indian cooking. Of course I am not sure as to how many users and lovers of chillies realise their health related properties. Their widespread use is mainly for the pungent flavour that they provide. Actually, chillies are fruits of Capsicum. The ripe fruits are generally red but in some forms they can also be yellow or orange. There are many interesting shapes and sizes amongst the myriad varieties of the chilli. The more pungent ones that generate extreme distress and sweating tend to be long, thin and smooth with a tapering and pointy end. The larger bell shaped fruit-that includes paprika-is less pungent and is used as a cooked vegetable or in salads. A very pungent variety of chilli found in the tropics is Cayenne pepper, made from bird chilli.

nsingh.rxpress@expressindia.com