A counterirritant is a substance which creates inflammation Inflammation is the complex biological response of vascular tissues to harmful stimuli, such as pathogens, damaged cells, or irritants. Inflammation is a protective attempt by the organism to remove the injurious stimuli as well as initiate the healing process for the tissue. Inflammation is not a synonym for infection. Even in cases where in one location with the goal of lessening the inflammation in another location.[1] They can be used as antipruritics Antipruritics, also known as anti-itch drugs, are medications that inhibit the itching that is often associated with sunburns, allergic reactions, eczema, psoriasis, chickenpox, fungal infections, insect bites and stings like those from mosquitoes, fleas, and mites, and contact dermatitis and urticaria caused by plants such as poison ivy (urushiol-. This strategy falls into the more general category of counterstimulation.
Capsaicin Capsaicin (8-methyl-N-vanillyl-6-nonenamide, (CH3)2CHCH=CH(CH2)4CONHCH2C6H3-4-(OH)-3-(OCH3)) 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. Capsaicin and several related is an example of a counterirritant.[2]
References
- ^ WordNet Search - 3.0
- ^ Prasad BC, Kumar V, Gururaj HB, Parimalan R, Giridhar P, Ravishankar GA (2006). "Characterization of capsaicin synthase and identification of its gene (csy1) for pungency factor capsaicin in pepper (Capsicum sp.)". Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 103 (36): 13315–20. doi A digital object identifier is a character string used to uniquely identify an electronic document or other entity. The DOI for a document remains fixed over the lifetime of the document, unlike URLs which can change when a publisher of online content changes its web server's file structure, and the DOI System provides a mechanism for locating an:10.1073/pnas.0605805103. PMID A PMID is a unique number assigned to each PubMed citation of life sciences and biomedical scientific journal articles. The related Pubmed Central archive may additionally assign a separate number, a PMCID (PubMed Central Identifier), normally written with a PMC prefix 16938870.