Posted on August 6, 2008 in Latest News
Red, green, orange, and yellow capsicum, once a native of Tropical America, is now cultivated worldwide. The mildly flavored capsicum is used extensively as a spice, medicine and as vegetable. Capsicum known as chili, jalapeno, pepper is also famous for its health and nutritional values. Rich with vitamins A, C, capsaicin, beta carotene, capsicum has been used traditionally for treating diverse ailments right from impotency to liver disease.
Benefits of Capsicum:
Capsicum is a vegetable that is adored all over the world not only for its delicious taste but also for its benefits to human body.
Listed below are some of the health benefits of Capsicum:
- Enhances Metabolism: Capsicum increases the metabolism by lowering triglycerides, which are stored fats in blood corpuscles.This helps in burning calories.
- Anti Oxidant Property: Capsicum is an important source of vitamin A and vitamin C. These two vitamins are powerful antioxidants that help in fighting free radicals in the body and help in treating heart diseases, osteoarthritis, bronchial asthma, cataract etc. The free radicals are responsible for causing cellular damage, damage to nerves and blood vessels.
- Pain Relief: Scientists believe that the compound capsaicin found in capsicum blocks the transmission of pain from the skin to the spinal cord. This is considered helpful in treating neuralgia, pain associated with herpes zoster and postoperative amputation trauma.
- Cancer Prevention: The compound capsaicin is also believed to treat cancer by preventing carcinogens from binding with DNA. As a regular dietary intake, it has been found through various studies that eating capsicum can provide some protection from cancer.
- Prevents Clotting of Blood: Studies suggest that capsicum has the capacity to prevent clotting of blood. Vitamin C is found to play a major role in dissolving blood clots.
- Fights Food-Borne Bacterial Diseases: In a study it has been found that capsaicin content in capsicum is effective in fighting off food-borne bacterial diseases like Vibrio vulnificus bacteria found in raw shellfish.
Nowhere in the world pepper is as much valued as in Mexico and in some Latin American countries. Scientists are taking renewed interest in capsicum and its side effects, if any .
» Filed Under Latest News
Comments
Leave a Reply
