face burning from pepper plant.

[smilingcat]

Ouie ouie... Not very smart of me.

I was separating seeds from the thin membrane then planting the seeds into the seed tray. Should have used a glove handling the dried pods but I was being lazy and convinced myself that it would be okay since the pods are bone dry.

Then I rubbed my hand on the side of the nose... It's past midnight and there is no way I can go to sleep with the searing hot pain. I wish the pepper plant I was handling was something more mild like Jalpeno, or even serano (hotter) or even cayenne (hotter still) but oh nooo. It was ghost pepper pods and seeds. Scoville hot scale puts it at 800,000+. some even say its over a million. Jalpeno is only around 3,000-8,000 serano at 8,000 - 23,000 and cayenne at 30,000- 50,000. you can imagine its hottness.

I washed my hand with soap multiple times but my finger tips are now burning. my face has a red rash developing ouie ouie...

Maybe I'll grind up the ghost pepper (bhut Jolokai) into fine powder and give it away as red hot pepper powder. years ago, my BIL said he likes really hot food. so I sent him ground red pepper. He never asked for it again. I wonder why?? Man supposedly loves hot spicy food. Maybe I need to smoke it first to give it more depth in flavor.

I also need to return a favor to my neighbor. He gave me a piece of jerky that took away my breath. He said, he made it with something hotter than Dave's insanely hot pepper sauce. I think he can use some of my ground red hot pepper.

[OakLeaf]

Ow ow ow!!

Best way I've found to get pepper off my hands is treat it like it's invisible 90-wt gear oil. Fast Orange or the like takes it right off. No help for your face though ...

[Catrin]

Wincing at your pain, and laughing at your gift ideas at the same time! I do hope that your face has recovered by now, that is a seriously HOT pepper. I do love the flavor of hot Asian peppers (South American, not so much), but I officially declare myself a wimp - Owie!!!

[thekarens]

Yikes! I can't even handle too much black pepper. I probably would have ran crying to the ER. Hope it clears up soon.

[VeganBikeChick]

I'm so sorry, that sounds painful! I do love ghost peppers, but not on my face.

[lauraelmore1033]

Oh my! I once opened a container of ghost peppers and burning of the nasal passages that resulted from a tentative sniff (at a distance) scared me enough that I never used them. I can't imagine how bad that would be if I'd gotten it on my face!

[emily_in_nc]

Ouch!

Last summer I chopped up a chile (not even sure what type) that the farmer I bought it from at the market said was "mild". My hands burned for 48 hours and required multiple soaks in ice water. Absolutely miserable. I can't even imagine how much MORE painful what you're going through is, but I am sure it is with a ghost pepper. I wonder if fresh aloe would help; it can be very good for burns, if you could locate a plant.

Wishing you the best!

[OakLeaf]

Haha, there's something about my terroir that makes peppers grow crazy hot. My jalapeños are hotter than grocery store habañeros. I made the mistake of growing habañeros one year, took a bite out of one and just about melted my head. I'm not even remotely tempted to try growing anything hotter!


Emily, it's not actually a burn, it's just overstimulation of the nerves. That's why people can develop a tolerance. You just need to get it off your skin and the burning will go away. But it's such a light persistent oil, and especially being colorless, it's hard to get it off. I'm conpletely serious that anything you use to take persistent oil off your hands in the garage, will work on pepper oil, but the trouble is most of that stuff you wouldn't use on your face. Gojo, Fast Orange, any of those mechanic's hand cleaners. But it's oil, not water soluble, so plain water won't do a thing, either washing or drinking.


Thinking about it, you might try scrubbing your face with grapeseed oil or some other light vegetable oil, followed by soap and water. Some oil light enough that it would lift the pepper oil without smearing it too much ... Walnut oil maybe ... Possibly safflower ...

[rebeccaC]

unfortunately i remember what you're feeling..

even though it should be gone by now if what you did didn't work then here's what works for me.
A mechanic’s soap with pumice, the pumice will help to get the capsaicin out of the pores…..and capsaicin is alcohol soluble so a pad with rubbing alcohol (or gin/volka) can get the capsaicin off and a milk-soaked washcloth (the casein in dairy helps to relieve the burn) both can help when it's on your face.....it did with me. remember to clean any knife etc you've used with rubbing alcohol before touching them with bare skin.

i remember ghost peppers....the intense sweet chili flavor followed by sweating, eye watering, hiccups, shortness of breath, heat building for wayyyy too long a period and an intense endorphin rush that fooled me into thinking it was a good experience.

[rebeccaC]

I looked it up, and the capsaicin in peppers is an alkali , or base, which explains why vinegar ameliorated the pain. It did say specifically to avoid alcohol (as mentioned by the previous poster), but not all sources are equal, and I can understand why it would make it feel better.

The New Mexico State University has an international institute devoted to the education and research of Capsicum. Isopropyl alcohol, soap and milk is what they recommend and what worked well when i needed it. Alcohol is not something you want to use to relieve the heat in the mouth which may be what you’re writing about. That just dissolves the capsaicin and spreads it around. Drinking milk/eating yogurt helps though.

now drinking 70-proof tequila may work in large quantities ... but then that may not leave you feeling good the next morning.

[rebeccaC]

The source was just through google, and not google scholar, which is why I assumed it to be incorrect regarding the alcohol. (I use Google Scholar extensively. Sigh).

Anyway, a refrigerated vinegar-based salad works well paired with hot food because it appears to neutralize the effects. Citrus was also recommended.

I use the EBSCO databases for research. It’s available for free to the alumni of my graduate school. A lot of universities make it available to alumni….yours may too if you’re interested in scientific/academic research/journals. Sometimes there will also be a link from a search result in google scholar to the corresponding full text in an EBSCOhost database. That’s available with my access to EBSCO.