Annotated Bibliography

This is my annotated bibliography that helped me in formatting, structuring, and organizing my sources.

  • Nunn, Nathan, and Nancy Qian. “The Columbian Exchange: A History of Disease, Food, and Ideas.” Journal of Economic Perspectives, vol. 24, no. 2, 2010, pp. 163–188., doi:10.1257/jep.24.2.163.

This journal article focuses on the overall idea of the Columbian Exchange through its spread of disease, and ideas. One of the main focus of this article is on chili peppers and its health advantages. Chili Peppers supposedly originated from parts of Bolivia and Southern Brazil when the Europeans came. It was noted that the pepper was soon brought to Spain and Africa. The nutritional advantages of consuming chili peppers. In consuming and utilizing the peppers, the advantages includes consuming vitamins, aids digestion, and utilized in the field of medicine. I plan to use this article to give background information of chili peppers. I plan to incorporate it into my beginning research of its origins and transition into the usage of chili peppers throughout the years.

  • Pickop, Eli. “Inflammation and Ulceration of the Stomach from Cayenne Pepper.” Provincial Medical and Surgical Journal (1844-1852), vol. 14, no. 4, 1850, pp. 93–93. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/25501158. 

This primary source talks about the inflammation of the stomach from eating cayenne pepper. It is a primary source of a first account at someone who is dying from consuming a “large” amount of cayenne pepper. Autopsy reports shows the stomach has been seen with great inflammation along the internal lining of the cardiac end with ulcerations. The author finds this very strange because the doctor had prescribed this person to consume 4 ounces of cayenne pepper during the 15 hours before the patient had passed away. I plan to use this in chronological order of consuming pepper from bad advantages to good advantages. Considering that this journal is from 1850, I want to research about the bad connotations towards chili peppers.

  • Lv, J., L. Qi, C. Yu, L. Yang, Y. Guo, Y. Chen, Z. Bian, et al. 2015. “Consumption of spicy foods and total and cause specific mortality: population based cohort study.” BMJ : British Medical Journal 351 (1): h3942. doi:10.1136/bmj.h3942. 

This scientific article acknowledges the influential usages of peppers, but scholarship tend to overlook the disadvantages of consuming chili peppers. They have done a population cohort study to evaluate mortality rates of those who consume peppers. Through their results, it was shown that there were no associations between spicy foods and mortality rates because they could not give an observational result from this study. Rather yet, they have concluded that people have different diets and one food cannot assume the health of an individual. I plan to use this source to prove the scholarship of health advantages of chili peppers. I can use this article in a planned section of disadvantages of consuming spicy foods at the end, so I can use it as a transition thought. Another use of this article can be in my advantages of chili peppers so that I can discuss this in my final section to end off my historiography essay on a strong note. 

  • Wright, Clifford A. “The Medieval Spice Trade and the Diffusion of the Chile.” Gastronomica, vol. 7, no. 2, 2007, pp. 35–43., doi:10.1525/gfc.2007.7.2.35. www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/gfc.2007.7.2.35.

This journal article discusses the spice trade before the discovery of chili peppers. It gives a brief history of the spice trades of the Portugese and the Dutch. The first recorded discovery of the chili pepper comes from Christopher Columbus’s journal entry when he encountered the pepper in 1493. The pepper began to diffuse after Columbus’s encounter throughout Europe. The spice and pepper will continue to diffuse to the rest of the world, in which the author emphasizes the culinary use of chile around the world. I plan to use this article to provide background information of the diffusion of chile. It will be used to support the evidence provided in the article written by Nathan, Nunn and Nancy Qian on the origins of chili peppers. 

  • Olatunji, Tomi L, and Anthony J Afolayan. “The suitability of chili pepper (Capsicum annuum L.) for alleviating human micronutrient dietary deficiencies: A review.” Food science & nutrition vol. 6,8 2239-2251. 8 Oct. 2018, doi:10.1002/fsn3.790

This is a scientific journal that discusses the health advantages of chili peppers in reducing human dietary deficiencies. Humans usually lack numerous minerals and vitamins such as vitamin A, iron, iodine, and zinc. To combat this problem the usage of chili peppers in diets are pushed for attention. Chili peppers are able to provide vitamins A, C, and E, and minerals of molybdenum, manganese, folate, potassium, and copper. They are also used for pharmacological, antioxidants, antidiabetic, anti-inflammatory, increase micronutrient, and cancer preventing. I plan to use this article to discuss the good usages of chili peppers. This will be able to convey the scholarship of other scholars that chili peppers have a good connotation in terms of its historical timeline. I plan to structure my essay into a chronological timeline so that the history of chili peppers progresses in good through time.  

  • The Spice of Life – Chilies: A Dash of Daring.” BBC Production. 1983, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-P0Fkf1N97Q.

This is a documentary of chili peppers that discusses the origins and the effects of the Columbian Exchange. Chili peppers were discovered in the New World by Christopher Columbus in the 15th century. Columbus brought the pepper back to Spain, in which a few years later, the Spice Trade started. The Spice Trade included the chili pepper which began to spread throughout the world. I plan to use this documentary to discuss the origins and exchanges of the chili pepper to show the chronological evolutionary factor of the pepper. I want to talk about the debate of the health advantages of chili peppers through the evolutionary factor. This documentary specifically mentions the Chinese using the chili pepper as a form of cooling and medicinal use. 

  • Chen, Nancy N. Food, Medicine, and the Quest for Good Health. Columbia University Press, 2009. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/10.7312/chen13484.

This is a book about the relationship between the usage of food and medicine. There is one specific chapter that focuses on the use of peppers in China. The author discusses a humoral theory proposed by the Chinese that there are different foods that can provide specific properties of hot, cold, dry, and wet. This is based on the yin and yang principles that certain foods are able to restore balance in one’s body. Chili peppers have the property to heat up the body. I plan to use this book to discuss the chronological order of the use of chili peppers in China. I want to connect this book to “The Spice of Life” because it also discusses the use of chili peppers as foods of healing, comfort, and longevity. It will be a transition from the past to the present. 

  • Chen, Yu-Heng et al. “High Spicy Food Intake and Risk of Cancer: A Meta-analysis of Case-control Studies.” Chinese medical journal vol. 130,18 (2017): 2241-2250. doi:10.4103/0366-6999.213968

This is a scientific journal that discusses the correlation between the consumption of chili peppers to cancer through the method of a meta analysis of case-control studies. A meta analysis is a statistical analysis that combines different studies to determine the correlation. In this study, the researchers studied 28 studies that were previously done in Asian regions and 11 from non-Asian regions of the relationship to gastric cancer, esophageal cancer, gallbladder cancer, and other cancers. Their results identified that there was a strong positive correlation between the consumption of chili peppers and cancer. I do not know if I will be using this study because the data of the research is complicated to explain. However, some aspects of this study is significant to my focus of chili peppers. I want to discuss the debate between chili peppers in Asian regions, specifically China. 

  • Hunter, Candace, and Sue Sierralupé. “Chili Pepper: Herbal Fire for Digestion and Circulation.” The Practical Herbalist, Holistic Medicine Library, 3 Nov. 2015, https://www.thepracticalherbalist.com/holistic-medicine-library/chili-pepper-herbal-fire-for-digestion-and-circulation/.

This is a non-periodical journal that discusses the benefits of the chili pepper. This article also mentions a debate, similar to my perspective, that studies done in China had concluded that the consumption of chili peppers decreases morbidity rates. It shows that the medicinal use of peppers are providing massive benefits in comparison to other studies that have found that peppers provide the opposite effect. These benefits include: increasing circulation, reduces inflammation, numbing effects, antiseptic, improves dental hygiene, nutritious factors, herbal properties, and improves blood flow. The article continues to explain the medicinal uses and conditions that chili peppers can aid in. I plan to use this journal as support for my discussion of the health benefits of the chili pepper. Although this article does not relate to any geographical location that I want to focus on, it can be used as an article for the worldview of chili peppers as a medicine. 

  • Yang, Yalan et al. “The consumption of chili peppers and the risk of colorectal cancer: a matched case-control study.” World journal of surgical oncology vol. 17,1 71. 17 Apr. 2019, doi:10.1186/s12957-019-1615-7

This is a research study to look at the relationship between the consumption of chili pepper colorectal cancer. The research was focused on 400 cases of people with colorectal cancer that was diagnosed primarily in China. Statistical analysis were used to classify the different characteristics of participants that included their diets and lifestyle. However, the results indicated that there was no suggestion that the consumption of chili peppers increased or decreased the risk for colorectal cancer. As I was reading over this scientific study, I am not sure that I will be using it because the research itself had many limitations. This does not mean that the data was inaccurate. This study gave me a direction in which some research does believe that there is a correlation between the consumption of chili peppers to illnesses or health disadvantages. I plan to use this as a footnote to explain some scholarship disagreements.