Chilli compound fires painkiller

A chemical from chilli peppers may be able to kill pain without affecting touch or movement.

This might in theory mean a woman in labour could have an epidural without losing the ability to move her legs, or the sensation of her baby being born.

Conventional local anaesthetics affect all nerve cells.

But the researchers Harvard team, writing in Nature, said that with capsaicin, the chilli chemical, they can target just pain receptors.

Dr Joan Hester, the president of the British Pain Society, said that while capsaicin had been used for many years to reduce skin sensitivity linked to chronic pain, it caused an unpleasant burning sensation that was too much for some patients.

 
This might be even more of a problem if the chemical was injected below the skin, she said.