Who hasn’t popped a mint or a piece of gum containing peppermint in it and felt that
rush of coolness? I had done this thing mindlessly in the past, but while eating a piece
of minty chocolate I wondered, what exactly is the peppermint doing in my mouth? We
all know that water evaporating off skin can cool the body, but when you
put something with peppermint oil in it, there’s not necessarily any water
in it to evaporate, and it happens in your mouth also, so what’s going on?

What I found about this one was quite interesting. It turns out that even
though peppermint is not physically cool, it turns on “coolness” receptors,
called Cold Menthol Receptor Type 1 (CMR1).  These CMR1 receptors turn
on between 8 and 28 degrees celsius, or 46.4-82.4 fahrenheit.

This article says scientist have been working on a substance that turns on
these CMR1’s and is 250 time more cooling than peppermint when applied
to the skin. How would that feel applied on a 110 degree day? Ahhh!

It’s interesting to note that there are two other temperature receptors
that have been discovered, these being on the other end of the scale - they tell
you your chilli pepper is hot. These two receptors are VR1 for hot, and VRL1
for super hot.

Next time you help yourself to a peppermint patty you can tell yourself you’re just testing
out your CMR1’s and making sure they still work.

Posted by Bonnie under food, health