RE: [CH] Re: {CH} Chile Head forum
Mary & Riley (uGuys@ChileGarden.com)
Fri, 17 Aug 2001 10:11:08 -0700
> >Cameron, please explain to me how the ethanol is able to carry away
> >the capsaicin with it as it evaporates.
> capsaicins, but all sorts of other stuff too. In the process of
> evaporating off the constituents the temperature gets high enough for
> you to loose the good stuff. Take a sniff and you'll know what I
> mean. You need to lower the boiling temperature by lowering the
> pressure. Move to Denver?
>
Cameron,
You may be mistaken. For one thing moving to Denver would lower the
boiling point of capsaicin too. But I think there's another process
going on here.
Capsaicin:
Melting point: 65 oC (Ref 8, 1811)
Boiling point: 210-220 oC at 0.01 torr pressure (Ref 8, 1811)
8: The Merck Index. 12th Edition. Merck & Co., Inc. Whitehouse Station,
NJ. 1996.
Note the pressure--that's a pretty hard vacuum. Got this from Mike's
Pepper Garden.
http://edgein.home.mindspring.com/science/majorcap2.html
95% ethanol/water is a constant boiling mixture and the ethanol/water
proportions don't change, as you know. I thought perhaps there was
something analogous with steam stripping going on here, but that doesn't
apply to miscible compounds.
If he's boiling it a long time then capsaicin is lost. After all, it's
going into the air, not a fractional column. But judging from the
boiling point I wouldn't think much would be lost. Hydrolysis perhaps?
Wimpy habaneros?
Riley