Capsaicin and its Human Therapeutic Development

Recently, the book series “Progress in Drug Research” the 68th volume dealt for the first time on “Capsaicin as a Therapeutic Molecule” (Springer, Basel, 2014). These facts, together with the new results of very active research, indicated to IntechOpen Limited, London, the need for a summarized account of the actual (updated) position of capsaicin research.

Besides introductory chapter, five excellent chapters are found in this book dealing with procedures of capsaicin from capsicum plants, emerging technologies to improve capsaicin delivery, correlations between capsaicinoid diversity and its human food preference, correlation between the capsaicin and lipid metabolism, and predictors that can be used in treatment responses to capsaicin in humans. The results of these observations clearly indicate that the capsaicin research has changed direction to include human medical treatment with capsaicin. This is why the editor has emphasized the key roles of international laws and necessary permissions.