EP 1 - Black Pepper - It hurts so good!

Episode 1 - Black Pepper - It hurts so good! What gives black pepper its heat? How did this jungle vine become a part of the human diet? We explore the historic origins and chemistry of this plant and its interactions with our pain receptors to find out! Have you ever wondered where your food comes from? Not just where it’s grown today, but where it originally popped up in the world? Have you ever bit into a delicious ripe fruit and wondered, hey – why is it this color? What’s responsible for this amazing flavor? Or – is this good for my health? Could it even be medicinal? Foodie Pharmacology is a food podcast built for the food curious, the flavor connoisseurs, chefs, science geeks, foodies and adventurous taste experimenters out in the world! So, join me on this adventure through history, medicine, cuisine and molecules as we explore the amazing pharmacology of our foods. Dr. Cassandra Quave is an American ethnobotanist, herbarium curator, and assistant professor at Emory University. Her research focuses on analyzing wild plants used in traditional cultures for food and medicine to combat some of the greatest challenges we face today in medicine: antibiotic resistant infections and cancer.