The swollen capillaries press down on nerve endings, resulting in a sensation of pain. It is this, along with the aroma of the chili inhaled through the nose, that creates the spicy hot "taste" (though no taste buds are sensitive to "piquancy") so eagerly sought by so many. After 1949, people from every corner of China brought their local cuisines with them to Taiwan.
台灣大學食品科技研究所教授李錦楓表示，辣椒含有一種強烈刺激性的辣椒精，可以刺激舌頭上的微血管膨脹，壓迫神經，產生痛覺，再混合鼻子吸入的氣味，就構成許多人趨之若狂的「辣感」。