RED HOT CHILLI: FROM PAST TO TODAY’S UROLOGY

Human contact with chillis started almost 7,000 years ago when they were cultivated in Mexico. They are consumed by almost one fourth of the worlds’ population including Turkey and have been used for medicinal purposes over many centuries particularly to releive pain. Capsaicin, the pungent neurotoxin extracted from red peppers, when applied topically to the bladder mucosa blocks temporarily the excitability of unmyelinated (C) primary afferent fibers. For about the last decade, intravesical capsaicin in the treatment of detrusor hyperreflexia, hypersensitive disorders of lower urinary tract and severe bladder pain was preferred by the urologists. In this article we discussed red hot chilli as a drug in ancient medicine and modern Urology.