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Red Chilli Pepper as it is often called, originally came from South America and was used by the Aztecs. Orally, red chilli is used to stimulate digestion, as an anti-flatulent, to improve peripheral circulation, for reducing blood clotting tendencies, and preventing arteriosclerosis and heart disease. Herbalists use it successfully to treat heart attacks. The active ingredient in chilli is capsaicin.

Internally, capsaicin stimulates the heart, regulating the blood flow and strengthening the arteries and capillaries. If you want to get your blood flowing and your face red with blood take have some chilli with you food the most popular being chilli con carne or a vindaloo curry.

In sensitive people, capsaicin may cause gastrointestinal irritation along with sweating and flushing of the head and neck. Taking red chilli with food may help to prevent these uncomfortable side effects.

In a recent letter to the editors of the New England Journal of Medicine, three Italian doctors describe how they were able to reduce patients' reported dyspepsia –stomach pain - symptoms by more than half, by prescribing red chilli powder.

Last week scientists from the Samuel Oschin Comprehensive Cancer Institute at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, in collaboration with colleagues from UCLA, found that Capsaicin causes human prostate cancer cells to undergo programmed cell death or apoptosis.

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