My hands are burning from red pepper, what should I do?

Hot red pepper is a universal seasoning that goes well with almost all dishes. This pepper combines not only a spicy taste and unique aroma, but also many beneficial properties and qualities. However, along with all the advantages, red pepper has one significant drawback - it emits a poisonous essential oil, which, if it comes into contact with the skin, can cause severe irritation, even burns. Anyone can get their hands burned by pepper, and therefore you need to know in advance what needs to be done in such a situation.

First aid

As a rule, people get the vast majority of pepper burns during cooking. What to do if the skin is red and signs of a burn are clearly visible on it? Options for helping with hot pepper burns may vary. Let's look at the most popular of them.

1. It is recommended to constantly wash the damaged areas of the skin under cool water, and do this until the pain begins to subside. Under no circumstances should you wash your hands with soap, in an attempt to wash off the caustic essential oil contained in pepper. This will not only bring no benefit, but, on the contrary, will aggravate the situation.
2. If plain water is not effective, you need to prepare a weak solution of soda and add a small amount of ice to it. You should keep your hands in this solution for 10 - 15 minutes.
3. Table salt will also help with red pepper burns. Rub salt onto the affected area and leave it for 5-10 minutes. In order to evenly distribute the salt over the skin, you can add a drop of water to it. It is recommended to wash off the salt first with milk, and then with plain water. This is explained by the fact that salt helps cleanse the skin of your hands from ingrained pepper, and milk, in turn, dissolves the remaining particles.
4. An effective remedy is olive oil, since burning substances dissolve well in it. They need to thoroughly rub their hands for a minute, and then wash them with warm water. In addition, you can mix olive oil with sugar (in such proportions as to form a mass similar in consistency to a scrub) and apply the resulting mixture to the affected areas of your hands. After the procedure, it is necessary to apply sea buckthorn oil to the skin.
5. To temporarily reduce pain and sensitivity of irritated skin, you can dip your hands in a strong alcoholic drink for a few minutes. Alcohol, as well as milk, helps dissolve the particles of poisonous pepper essential oil remaining on the hands.
6. You can also lubricate the burn surface with a light vinegar solution, lemon juice or plain kefir.

Treatment of hand burns from pepper

After first aid has been provided to the victim, it is time to treat hand burns.

1. First of all, it is necessary to prevent infection of the damaged area, and therefore antibacterial ointment “Fastin” should be applied to the burn surface daily. “Rescuer”, which contains large quantities of “Levomekol”, is also effective in treating burns.
2. In order to help the skin recover faster after a pepper burn on the hands, it is recommended to apply Panthenol in the form of a cream or ointment to the affected areas three times a day.
3. The most important point in treating a pepper burn on the hands is to rest the burn surface, for which the hand is often bandaged. However, it is important to know that the skin will recover faster when the wound is open. Therefore, it is best to abandon all household chores until healing, and at night, in order to avoid injury to the burned area, apply a bandage to it.

If self-treatment is ineffective, you should never endure pain. It is necessary to visit a doctor who will provide qualified assistance. By refusing to visit a specialist, the victim may not only lose his ability to work for a long time, but also risk significantly damaging the skin of his hands. Red pepper burn is actually a real chemical burn.

Knowledge of how to act in the event of a pepper burn on your hands will help you take the necessary measures in a timely manner and thereby avoid various unpleasant consequences.

Red hot peppers are rich in caustic essential oils, so if you cut them incorrectly, touch them with bare hands, or taste the pod, you can get a real burn.

Photo 1. A small hot pepper can cause a real fire in your mouth. Source: Flickr (Marco Verch).

Why does pepper burn?

Red hot pepper seeds, veins and skin contain large amounts of capsaicin is an oily substance that causes burning, redness on the skin, swelling, etc. It is this that gives the pepper its spicy taste, but it can also cause a chemical burn.

In addition, capsaicin is dangerous because it can cause allergic reactions even when simply touching the pepper with bare hands. AND If such a substance enters the body, it takes a long time to be eliminated.

Symptoms can be relieved, but complete recovery will not occur until the capsaicin is released. And this usually takes several days.

Signs of pepper burn

Symptoms appear on the area of ​​skin that came into contact with pepper. And includes typical signs of a burn: the skin itches, turns red, and feels burning.

However, a burn can affect different layers of the dermis, in which case the signs will differ depending on the severity of the injury:

1. mild degree – mild symptoms, which consist of mild discomfort;
2. average degree – redness of the skin, itching and peeling, and then a rash resembling hives;
3. severe - the appearance of blisters, ulcers, and sometimes bleeding from the burned area.

Note! Pepper is dangerous not only in fresh form, but also in dry seasoning and in pepper plaster, since in any form it retains capsaicin.

First aid

First aid measures relieve the acute symptoms of a chili pepper burn and reduce the likelihood of complications, but do not treat the injury itself. Therefore, if the burn was severe, after first aid you should consult a doctor to prescribe treatment.

Depending on which part of the body is affected, the method of relieving symptoms will differ. If your skin is burned:

1. recommended rinse damaged area cold waterat least 15 minutes, but you cannot use soap, as this will worsen the situation, because alkali neutralizes only acids, not caustic essential oils;
2. if water has no effect, the burn should be treated with a soda solution with ice, in which the hand is placed for 10 minutes (soda neutralizes capsaicin well);
3. salt can cleanse the skin of pepper that has ingrained itself into it, for which you should pour it onto the damaged area and moisten it a little with water for even distribution (hold for no longer than 5 minutes);
4. after treating with salt, the skin should be washed with milk, since it removes particles of caustic ether;
5. Olive oil also dissolves the pungent substances of pepper and prevents them from penetrating deeper into the skin, so the affected area should be rubbed with it for about a minute, and then rinsed with warm water;
6. weak vinegar essence can stop the burning reaction caused by chili peppers, as can citric acid - they also treat the burn.

If the mucous membrane of the mouth or throat is damaged, it is recommended to rinse your mouth with cold water until the burning sensation goes away, and then drink milk. In this case, by the way, any dairy products will help: yogurt, ice cream, etc.

Photo 2. Milk can eliminate the caustic effects of pepper. Source: Flickr (GummyPiglet)

And since starch dissolves capsaicin, it also helps with pepper burns. In this case, you can eat some pure starch, or potatoes, bread or rice.

Note! Under no circumstances should you touch your eyes, lips, or skin near them with hands that touched the pepper, because the burn on the mucous membranes will be felt even stronger and will cause much more harm.

How to relieve the burning sensation from pepper

Foods and substances that neutralize capsaicin. These include:

1. Bleaching powder, which converts capsaicin into a water-soluble salt. Bleach should be diluted with water in a ratio of 1:5 and immerse your hands in this solution, and then rinse well.
2. Alcohol dissolves caustic essential oils, so it makes sense to rub it or any alcohol-containing product (tonic, lotion) on the burn, and then rinse with running water.
3. Vegetable oil neutralizes caustic essential oils of chili peppers. It is used to treat damaged skin to relieve the burning sensation. If the burn is on the mucous membrane, you just need to hold a spoonful of oil in your mouth.
4. It will also help with burning in the mouth and throat. concentrated sugar syrup or a spoonful of honey under the tongue.

At all, capsaicin is a fat-soluble substance, so any of the fat-rich foods may help.

Treatment

On one's own A red pepper burn can only be treated if if the degree of skin damage is mild. In all other cases, you should consult a doctor to exclude the development of complications.

After first aid, wound need to treat with antisepticto prevent infection.

Every day the burn will have to be lubricated with antiseptic ointments - Rescuer, Levomekol or Fastin.

To speed up the process of skin regeneration, the wound surface should be treated with Panthenol (ointment or cream). And this will need to be done at least three times a day, preferably during dressing changes.

After a chemical burn, the skin needs rest, so the wound should be dressed with a clean bandage and the bandage should be changed regularly.

Prevention of pepper burns

To avoid burns when handling red hot peppers, hands must be protected with gloves. A eyes should be covered glasses.

If there are no gloves, they can be replaced with plastic bags placed on your hands. Or, as a last resort, just wrap your brushes in paper towels.

Additional precaution - before working with chili grease your hands with a small amount of vegetable oil.

If your hands burn from hot peppers, then it’s not scary, except it brings very unpleasant sensations. Just never wash your hands with warm or hot water, otherwise it will burn even more. And do not touch your face, especially your eyes, with your hands. Just wash your hands with cold water and soap, preferably liquid soap or shower gel, two or three times. Soon the burning will go away.

Hello! Recently I was rolling up “Armenianchiki” tomatoes, which are stuffed with hot peppers and garlic, and out of my stupidity I didn’t use gloves. (Before this I used a new grater and hurt my hands in several places). At first, the burning sensation was tolerable, but since the stuffing process took 1 hour, the pepper was well absorbed into my hands. I tried everything I could to remove the burning sensation: cold water, butter, sour milk, washed my hands with soap to no avail, only relief for a while and then the burning sensation again. And the most interesting thing is that my husband recommended a spray remedy for burns (I won’t say the name; I’m not advertising anything). And it helped me. Hooray. After 15 minutes there was no unpleasant sensation of scalded hands))) By the way, I was afraid to touch my eyes for two days))).

My sister asked me to wrap vegetables on adjika and warned me not to take hot peppers with my bare hands, otherwise last year she itched, sniffled, burned, sneezed, and everything turned red. But my sister is allergic. To be honest, I used a knife to hook it into the meat grinder, and where the pepper came out I pushed it with my finger. And nothing bad happened. I did not experience any signs or discomfort. But knowing that if you rub your eye, you can definitely burn your eye, I washed my hands several times with soap and didn’t scratch my eyes for a day.

Therefore, take a tablet of suprastin or a similar medicine and wash your hands. If it burns, then the water must be cold.

Hot hot peppers can cause a burning sensation, watery eyes, and even difficulty breathing. Pepper must be handled with extreme care. Hot peppers contain capsaicin, a substance that gives them such a fiery taste. If you get hot pepper on your hands, you need to rub the affected area of ​​skin with salt and add a little water to make a paste. Spread this paste evenly over the entire skin of your hands. Then you need to wash off the salt with milk, and then with soap and water. If after this it was not possible to remove the burning sensation of pepper from your hands, then you need to immerse your hands in a strong alcoholic drink for several minutes. This will dissolve any remaining capsaicin particles.

If your skin is too delicate, and when chili pepper oils come into contact with it, a burn or just an unpleasant burning sensation occurs, then you need to cut it with gloves or wash the pepper with water before picking it up.

You need to wash your hands several times with cool water. It relieves the burning sensation. It usually goes away within 30 minutes. Next time, only wear gloves when cutting peppers.

Some people have very sensitive and delicate skin. They must do all housework with various cleaning products, as well as with spicy foods (horseradish, garlic, hot peppers) with gloves, otherwise troubles will inevitably arise. In addition to the unpleasant sensations from the burn, there may also be an allergic reaction to these products, which is simply dangerous.

This year I received a severe burn with blisters when I touched an ash plant, or rather its seed pods, without gloves with the backs of my hands. There was no severe pain, but the burns took two months to heal.

Hot pepper juice can also burn and cause severe pain. You need to rinse your hands off for a long time under running cold water, alternating with soaping your hands. If it doesn’t help, they use burn creams; the “Rescuer” cream helps me. Previously, protective silicone cream was sold, which must be applied to your hands before work. Do not touch your face or eyes under any circumstances!