Piquance
Encyclopedia
Piquance is a sensation associated with the sense of taste
. In various Asia
n countries it has traditionally been considered a basic taste.
present participle
of the verb piquer, meaning to prick; it is cognate with the Spanish
and Portuguese
word picante, which carries the same meaning, and also with the English word pique. Common synonyms for piquance include hotness, pungence, raciness, spiciness, or the condition of something being spicy hot.
Instead of "hot" simply referring to temperature, and "spicy" being used to refer to the presence of spice
s (many of which are not actually piquant), the former two words are often used as synonyms for the latter, a word less commonly employed in reference to the characteristic which in regards to taste it solely defines, which is pain associated with the sense of taste.
For instance, a pumpkin pie
can be both hot (out of the oven) and spicy (due to the common inclusion of ingredients in its recipe such as cinnamon
, nutmeg
, allspice
, mace and clove
s) but is not actually piquant. Conversely, pure capsaicin
is piquant, yet is not naturally accompanied by a hot temperature or spices.
measures the piquance of chili pepper
s, as defined by the amount of capsaicin they contain.
It is not considered a taste in the technical sense, because it is carried to the brain by a different set of nerves. While taste nerves are activated when consuming foods like chili peppers, the sensation commonly interpreted as "hot" results from the stimulation of somatosensory fibers in the mouth. Many parts of the body with exposed membranes that lack taste receptors (such as the nasal cavity, genitals, or a wound) produce a similar sensation of heat when exposed to pungent agents.
The piquant sensation provided by chili peppers, black pepper
and other spices like ginger
and horseradish
plays an important role in a diverse range of cuisines across the world, such as Korean, Persian
, Turkish
, Ethiopian, Hungarian, Indian
, Indonesian, Laotian, Singaporean, Malaysian, Bangladeshi
, Mexican
, Caribbean
, Pakistani, Southwest Chinese (including Sichuan cuisine), Sri Lankan, and Thai cuisines.
among self-described "chiliheads" attributes this to pain-stimulated release of endorphins, a different mechanism from the local receptor overload that makes capsaicin effective as a topical analgesic. In support of this theory, there is some evidence that the effect can be blocked by naloxone
and other compounds that compete for receptor sites with endorphins and opiates.
. Substances such as piperine
and capsaicin
cause a burning sensation by inducing a trigeminal nerve
reaction together with normal taste reception. The pungent feeling caused by allyl isothiocyanate, capsaicin, piperine, and allicin is caused by activation of the heat thermo- and chemosensitive TRP ion channels including TRPV1
and TRPA1
nociceptor
s.
The pungency of chilies may be an adaptive response to selection by microbial pathogens.
Taste
Taste is one of the traditional five senses. It refers to the ability to detect the flavor of substances such as food, certain minerals, and poisons, etc....
. In various Asia
Asia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
n countries it has traditionally been considered a basic taste.
Etymology
The English word piquant comes from the Old FrenchOld French
Old French was the Romance dialect continuum spoken in territories that span roughly the northern half of modern France and parts of modern Belgium and Switzerland from the 9th century to the 14th century...
present participle
Participle
In linguistics, a participle is a word that shares some characteristics of both verbs and adjectives. It can be used in compound verb tenses or voices , or as a modifier...
of the verb piquer, meaning to prick; it is cognate with the Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
and Portuguese
Portuguese language
Portuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...
word picante, which carries the same meaning, and also with the English word pique. Common synonyms for piquance include hotness, pungence, raciness, spiciness, or the condition of something being spicy hot.
Piquant vs. "hot" and/or "spicy"
Use of the word "piquance" eliminates potential lingual ambiguity arising from overlap in meaning with the words "hot" and "spicy" which usually requires a determination or assumption of meaning based on context.Instead of "hot" simply referring to temperature, and "spicy" being used to refer to the presence of spice
Spice
A spice is a dried seed, fruit, root, bark, or vegetative substance used in nutritionally insignificant quantities as a food additive for flavor, color, or as a preservative that kills harmful bacteria or prevents their growth. It may be used to flavour a dish or to hide other flavours...
s (many of which are not actually piquant), the former two words are often used as synonyms for the latter, a word less commonly employed in reference to the characteristic which in regards to taste it solely defines, which is pain associated with the sense of taste.
For instance, a pumpkin pie
Pumpkin pie
Pumpkin pie is a traditional sweet dessert, often eaten during the fall and early winter, especially for Thanksgiving and Christmas in the United States and Canada. The pumpkin is a symbol of harvest time and featured also at Halloween....
can be both hot (out of the oven) and spicy (due to the common inclusion of ingredients in its recipe such as cinnamon
Cinnamon
Cinnamon is a spice obtained from the inner bark of several trees from the genus Cinnamomum that is used in both sweet and savoury foods...
, nutmeg
Nutmeg
The nutmeg tree is any of several species of trees in genus Myristica. The most important commercial species is Myristica fragrans, an evergreen tree indigenous to the Banda Islands in the Moluccas of Indonesia...
, allspice
Allspice
Allspice, also called Jamaica pepper, pepper, myrtle pepper, pimenta, or newspice, is a spice that is the dried unripe fruit of Pimenta dioica , a mid-canopy tree native to the Greater Antilles, southern Mexico, and Central America, now cultivated in many warm parts of the world...
, mace and clove
Clove
Cloves are the aromatic dried flower buds of a tree in the family Myrtaceae. Cloves are native to the Maluku islands in Indonesia and used as a spice in cuisines all over the world...
s) but is not actually piquant. Conversely, pure capsaicin
Capsaicin
Capsaicin 2CHCH=CH4CONHCH2C6H3-4--3- ) is the active component of chili peppers, which are plants belonging to the genus Capsicum. It is an irritant for mammals, including humans, and produces a sensation of burning in any tissue with which it comes into contact...
is piquant, yet is not naturally accompanied by a hot temperature or spices.
In foods
Piquance is often quantized in scales that range from mild to hot. The Scoville scaleScoville scale
The Scoville scale is a measurement of the spicy heat of a chili pepper. The number of Scoville heat units indicates the amount of capsaicin present. Capsaicin is a chemical compound that stimulates chemoreceptor nerve endings in the skin, especially the mucous membranes.The scale is named after...
measures the piquance of chili pepper
Chili pepper
Chili pepper is the fruit of plants from the genus Capsicum, members of the nightshade family, Solanaceae. The term in British English and in Australia, New Zealand, India, Malaysia and other Asian countries is just chilli without pepper.Chili peppers originated in the Americas...
s, as defined by the amount of capsaicin they contain.
It is not considered a taste in the technical sense, because it is carried to the brain by a different set of nerves. While taste nerves are activated when consuming foods like chili peppers, the sensation commonly interpreted as "hot" results from the stimulation of somatosensory fibers in the mouth. Many parts of the body with exposed membranes that lack taste receptors (such as the nasal cavity, genitals, or a wound) produce a similar sensation of heat when exposed to pungent agents.
The piquant sensation provided by chili peppers, black pepper
Black pepper
Black pepper is a flowering vine in the family Piperaceae, cultivated for its fruit, which is usually dried and used as a spice and seasoning. The fruit, known as a peppercorn when dried, is approximately in diameter, dark red when fully mature, and, like all drupes, contains a single seed...
and other spices like ginger
Ginger
Ginger is the rhizome of the plant Zingiber officinale, consumed as a delicacy, medicine, or spice. It lends its name to its genus and family . Other notable members of this plant family are turmeric, cardamom, and galangal....
and horseradish
Horseradish
Horseradish is a perennial plant of the Brassicaceae family, which also includes mustard, wasabi, broccoli, and cabbages. The plant is probably native to south eastern Europe and the Arab World , but is popular around the world today...
plays an important role in a diverse range of cuisines across the world, such as Korean, Persian
Iranian cuisine
Iranian cuisine is diverse, with each province featuring dishes, culinary traditions and styles distinct to its region.It includes a wide variety of foods ranging from chelo kabab , khoresht Iranian cuisine is diverse, with each province featuring dishes, culinary traditions and styles distinct to...
, Turkish
Turkish cuisine
Turkish cuisine is largely the heritage of Ottoman cuisine, which can be described as a fusion and refinement of Central Asian, Middle Eastern and Balkan cuisines. Turkish cuisine has in turn influenced those and other neighbouring cuisines, including that of western Europe...
, Ethiopian, Hungarian, Indian
Indian cuisine
Indian cuisine consists of thousands of regional cuisines which date back thousands of years. The dishes of India are characterised by the extensive use of various Indian spices, herbs, vegetables and fruit. Indian cuisine is also known for the widespread practice of vegetarianism in Indian society...
, Indonesian, Laotian, Singaporean, Malaysian, Bangladeshi
Cuisine of Bangladesh
Bangladeshi cuisine refers to the Bengali cuisine prevalent in Bangladesh. Bangladesh was the eastern part of Bengal before the Partition of India. The Bangladeshi cuisine incorporates many Persian-Arabic elements and the usage of beef greatly sets it apart from the cuisine in West Bengal in India....
, Mexican
Mexican cuisine
Mexican cuisine, a style of food that originates in Mexico, is known for its varied flavors, colourful decoration and variety of spices and ingredients, most of which are native to the country. The cuisine of Mexico has evolved through thousands of years of blending indigenous cultures, with later...
, Caribbean
Caribbean cuisine
Caribbean cuisine is a fusion of African, Amerindian, British, Spanish, French, Dutch, Indian, and Chinese cuisine. These traditions were brought from the many homelands of this region's population...
, Pakistani, Southwest Chinese (including Sichuan cuisine), Sri Lankan, and Thai cuisines.
In beverages
Recently beverage products are emerging with capsaicin as an active ingredient. The first two capsaicin beverages to hit the market are Prometheus Springs Elixirs launched in 2007 and Sweet16 launched in 2011. It is common for people to experience pleasurable and even euphoriant effects from ingesting capsaicin. FolkloreFolklore
Folklore consists of legends, music, oral history, proverbs, jokes, popular beliefs, fairy tales and customs that are the traditions of a culture, subculture, or group. It is also the set of practices through which those expressive genres are shared. The study of folklore is sometimes called...
among self-described "chiliheads" attributes this to pain-stimulated release of endorphins, a different mechanism from the local receptor overload that makes capsaicin effective as a topical analgesic. In support of this theory, there is some evidence that the effect can be blocked by naloxone
Naloxone
Naloxone is an opioid antagonist drug developed by Sankyo in the 1960s. Naloxone is a drug used to counter the effects of opiate overdose, for example heroin or morphine overdose. Naloxone is specifically used to counteract life-threatening depression of the central nervous system and respiratory...
and other compounds that compete for receptor sites with endorphins and opiates.
In popular culture
Frequently in animated cartoons and the like, piquance is often shown as though the consumer's mouth is literally on fire to emphasise the burning sensation, with sight gags as flames and smoke coming out of their mouths when they consume spicy food.Mechanism
The scientific term for the effect of piquance is chemesthesisChemesthesis
Chemesthesis is defined as the chemical sensibility of the skin and mucus membranes. Chemesthetic sensations arise when chemical compounds activate receptors associated with other senses that mediate pain, touch, and thermal perception. These chemical-induced reactions do not fit into the...
. Substances such as piperine
Piperine
Piperine is the alkaloid responsible for the pungency of black pepper and long pepper, along with chavicine . It has also been used in some forms of traditional medicine and as an insecticide. Piperine forms monoclinic needles, is slightly soluble in water and more so in alcohol, ether or...
and capsaicin
Capsaicin
Capsaicin 2CHCH=CH4CONHCH2C6H3-4--3- ) is the active component of chili peppers, which are plants belonging to the genus Capsicum. It is an irritant for mammals, including humans, and produces a sensation of burning in any tissue with which it comes into contact...
cause a burning sensation by inducing a trigeminal nerve
Trigeminal nerve
The trigeminal nerve contains both sensory and motor fibres. It is responsible for sensation in the face and certain motor functions such as biting, chewing, and swallowing. Sensory information from the face and body is processed by parallel pathways in the central nervous system...
reaction together with normal taste reception. The pungent feeling caused by allyl isothiocyanate, capsaicin, piperine, and allicin is caused by activation of the heat thermo- and chemosensitive TRP ion channels including TRPV1
TRPV1
The transient receptor potential cation channel subfamily V member 1 ', also known as the capsaicin receptor and the vanilloid receptor 1, is a protein that, in humans, is encoded by the TRPV1 gene...
and TRPA1
TRPA1
Transient receptor potential cation channel, subfamily A, member 1, also known as TRPA1, is a protein which in humans is encoded by the TRPA1 gene....
nociceptor
Nociceptor
A nociceptor is a sensory receptor that responds to potentially damaging stimuli by sending nerve signals to the spinal cord and brain. This process, called nociception, usually causes the perception of pain.-History:...
s.
The pungency of chilies may be an adaptive response to selection by microbial pathogens.