What is Gochu?
Gochu is the Korean name for the chilli pepper, from the plant group Capsicum. You meet it fresh and green, dried and ground into the red powder gochugaru, or fermented into the thick paste gochujang.
In Korean kitchens and home remedies, gochu is used as a warming food, to wake up appetite and digestion, and as a rub or plaster over aching muscles and joints. Modern pharmacies sell its hot compound, capsaicin, concentrated into creams and patches.
The evidence splits in two. Purified capsaicin put on the skin has been tested in people and is used medically for some kinds of nerve pain. Eating gochu, or taking capsicum capsules, has much thinner human evidence, and long traditional use is not proof that something works.
How does Gochu work?
The heat of gochu comes from capsaicin, which switches on a heat-and-pain sensor sitting in your nerve endings. Your body reads that signal as burning, even though nothing is actually being burned.
With repeated exposure, that sensor is thought to become less responsive, so pain messages from the skin get quieter. This idea is best supported for strong capsaicin creams and patches, and much less so for eating chilli.
Eating gochu also makes many people sweat, clears the nose for a while and slightly raises how much heat the body gives off. Claims that this adds up to meaningful weight loss are not well supported in people.
How gochu behaves in the gut is mixed. Small amounts may nudge stomach movement and appetite, while larger amounts irritate an already sore stomach or gut.
What forms does Gochu come in?
Fresh gochu peppers are eaten raw, grilled or pickled, green or ripe red.
Gochugaru is the dried, coarsely ground red powder used in kimchi and stews. Gochujang is the fermented paste, which is sweet and salty as well as hot.
Outside the kitchen, you will find capsicum or cayenne capsules, tinctures, and warming plasters. Pharmacy creams usually hold 0.025% to 0.075% capsaicin. A far stronger 8% patch exists for nerve pain, but it is a prescription treatment applied by a health professional.
Where it comes from:
Chilli reached Korea in the late 1500s or early 1600s, most likely through trade routes after it travelled from the Americas. It spread quickly and reshaped Korean food.
By the 1700s gochu was central to kimchi and to the fermented pastes still eaten daily. Korean folk practice treated it as a warming, circulation-stirring food and used chilli plasters on cold, stiff joints. That makes it a long-standing staple of one tradition rather than an ancient classical herb.
Who should avoid Gochu?
- Do not use if you take warfarin or another blood thinner, unless your doctor has agreed — concentrated capsicum may add to bleeding risk.
- Do not use if you take aspirin, clopidogrel or another anti-platelet medicine (a drug that stops blood cells sticking together), without asking your doctor first.
- Do not use if you take theophylline (an asthma medicine), because chilli may increase how much of it your body absorbs.
- Do not use if you have an active peptic ulcer (a sore in the stomach lining) or a flare of gastritis (an inflamed stomach lining).
- Do not use if you have severe or poorly controlled acid reflux (stomach acid rising into the gullet).
- Do not use if you are in a flare of inflammatory bowel disease (long-term inflammation of the gut) or have painful haemorrhoids (piles).
- Do not use if you have ever reacted to chilli or sweet peppers with a rash, swelling or wheezing.
- Do not use if you have broken, damaged, burned or infected skin — never put chilli cream, paste or a plaster on open skin, and never near your eyes or genitals.
- Do not use if you are about to have surgery: stop concentrated capsicum supplements at least two weeks before.
- Do not use if you are pregnant or breastfeeding and are considering capsicum capsules; normal amounts in food are fine, concentrated supplements have not been tested.
- Do not use if you are giving it to a baby or young child as a remedy, and never apply chilli products to a child's skin.
When should you see a doctor?
See a doctor if pain you are treating with a chilli cream has not improved after four weeks, or is getting worse.
Book an appointment if you get ongoing heartburn, stomach pain, or loose stools that do not settle when you cut the chilli out, and if you take a blood thinner and notice easy bruising, nosebleeds or bleeding gums.
Get urgent care the same day for chest pain, vomiting blood, black tarry stools, severe stomach pain, blistering skin under a cream or patch, or chilli powder splashed into the eye that still hurts after rinsing.
Call emergency services for swelling of the lips, tongue or throat, a spreading rash with faintness, or trouble breathing after eating or handling chilli.
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