THE EFFECT OF CHILIC AND ITS PUNGENT INGREDIENT CAPSAICIN ON GASTROINTESTINAL TRANSIT IN THE RAT

The effect of chilli powder and its pungent ingredient capsaicin on ga strointestinal transit in the rat was studied. Fasted unanaesthetized male Sprague-Dawley rats (n = 144) received by gavage a test meal cont aining charcoal and cellulose in water or capsaicin solvent plus Cr-51 as a radioactive marker. Either 100 or 200 mg of chilli powder (conta ining 0. 13 and 0. 26 mg of capsaicin, respectively) or 0.5 or 1 mg of capsaicin were added, the final volume of each meal being 1.5 mL. At 10 and 20 min, animals were killed and the amount of isotope that had left the stomach was measured, together with the distance the charcoal column had travelled along the small intestine. Compared to controls, animals given chilli powder emptied less of their gastric content at 10 and 20 min, an effect partly reproduced by capsaicin. However overa ll gastric-small intestinal transit was unaffected by chilli powder or capsaicin. Another 12 male Sprague-Dawley rats received, under light ether anaesthesia, on six occasions at 1-2 week intervals, the same si x test meals as used in the previous experiment except that charcoal w as not used. Total gut transit as measured by the amount of radioactiv e marker excreted in the stools at 18 and 24 h was unaffected by the u se of chilli or capsaicin.