Why does mint make your mouth feel cold ?

Mint feels cold once eaten

Credit: expressive image

Are you now nibbling in peppermint (A good herbal medicine)  leaves? You'll notice that making your mouth feel cold is possible. That's because the mint, looks like chili

The evolutionary miracle lies in the special molecules produced by this plant: chili peppers and mint. Scientists believe the plant strain may begin to produce chemicals to repel predators.

"Plants may have evolved to produce compounds to be used as a defense mechanism, and through natural selection, I found that some of them have worked," said Wise Paul, an active member of the Center for Chemical Sensations in Philadelphia, of Life Sciences. [Why do your teeth feel strange after eating spinach?]

"The plants that produced these compounds were less likely to eat," he said. Those who survived longer enough to reproduce were able to spread their seeds and transfer their genes to the next strain.

That's why mint makes menthol. But why does your mouth feel cold?

The answer is given by specialists with reliable testimony. Menthol makes our bodies feel cold, even though we do not feel cold. Menthol and capacein affect the sensory receptor system that monitors things such as temperature, pain and touch. This complex network of nerve cells, called the somatosensory system, differs from the system responsible for taste and smell.

The potential of the work is like an electrochemical message and it presses the button "Turn on cold receptors on the tongue." So the reason reasonably explains that "the tongue is cool", but this is not the case most of the time.

Most proteins are designed to receive and open their ionic channels when they detect a special stimulus. For example, protein scientists called TRPM8 are often associated with cold.

What makes your mouth feel cold in the mint is that the menthol molecules also cause the channels to open their own ions and send real potential to the brain, which automatically interprets the small electricity pulse as a "cold tongue", even when it is not.

Scientists can deduce why TRPM8 is sensitive to cold and menthol, but there is not enough evidence yet.

It has only been a few days since the publication of a study in Public Health Describe how protein recognizes the molecules of menthol.

"One of the main reasons for our sensitivity in the mouth, eyes and nose to chili and menthol is that the nerve endings are very close to the surface," he said.

For advice, the other time you enjoy mint flakes, remember that it is not only the snow that makes you cold; mint also has an active role.