Snooping Around

Menthol formula Eating a peppermint or a slice of mint cake, especially during a hot day,  is such a pleasurable experience. Feeling that fantastic sense of cold is one of the reasons we love these sweets so much. And obviously the characteristic flavor is loved everywhere. But why mint tastes cold? is temperature really involved in this process or maybe is just a trick of our body? Let’s find out… Menthol Crystals Most of you knows that the responsible is Menthol, an organic compound normally obtained from all mint plants. Of course nowadays, with the extreme high demand and the huge amount of products is used in, menthol is synthetically produced in form of a waxy, crystalline substance that can be both clear or white. At room temperature is solid, but few degrees are enough to make it melt. What happens when we eat a product that contains menthol? Well, our mouth contains some specific receptors that responds to this chemical compound. The receptor we’re tal...

Sometimes our brain is not completely perfect. All over the world there are tons of molecules that have the power of fooling our natural complexity. For example, using a part of us that never sleeps…our constant search for food. All you have to do is look up at the spices you have at home and, if you have a little bottle with the words “Spicy Pepper” written on it, you’ve been fooled more than you could imagine. This because we’re going to discover the secret of Capsaicin, the Spicy Cheater. As some of you might have deduced, this molecule can be found in almost all kinds of peppers. Most of the capsaicin in peppers (which is a fruit, not a vegetable) is mostly focused around the seeds. The plant uses it as a defense mechanism against potential eaters and threats, and this clever method is actually more than useful. Except for specific animals, like birds, that eat seeds without destroying them, so they can spread them all around with feces. This means new plants and great advantag...