Pepper Juice: A Homemade Preventative Cold and Flu Remedy

Pepper Juice is a quick and easy way to up your body’s resistance to colds and flu in times of stress or exposure. This will certainly strengthen your immune system!

You know you must be a little bit of a mad scientist when you enjoy making concoctions, especially hot ones like this! This is known as Super Tonic, from the book Be Your Own Doctor.

Note: taken properly in juice or water, it isn’t ‘hot’ or distasteful at all.

Pepper Juice Recipe

Ingredients:

Approximately equal parts of each ingredient washed and chopped:
Garlic
Onion
Ginger
Hot peppers (the hotter the better); I used habaneros
Horseradish

Plus, I added organic red and a few yellow beets because I had them on hand from the garden and because beets are an excellent blood and liver cleanser.

Directions:

1.) You may want to wear gloves when cutting the hot peppers. Keep out of eyes.

2.) Fill a jar 2/3rds full with the cut up ingredients. We used a quart canning jar with a tight sealing lid to allow for shaking the jar periodically.

3.) Top up the jar with raw apple cider vinegar or 80 proof vodka, covering the pepper juice ingredients completely.

There are Three Main Reasons to use alcohol over ACV when making tinctures. If you’re concerned about the alcohol, you can place the tincture in a cup, pour boiling water into the cup, and the alcohol will evaporate within seconds. OR, you can add your dose (20-30 drops) to a cup of water and let the alcohol evaporate for a few minutes. 

As I stated in my Elderberry tincture post, the amount of alcohol in the average dose of tincture is equal to the alcohol in a ripe banana.

4.) Seal and date your jar and let it sit in a dark cabinet at room temperature for at least 3 weeks. The longer it sits, up to 6 weeks, the more nutrients the vodka will pull out. Shake the jar every or every other day.

5.) Lastly, strain out the vegetables and pour the resulting pepper juice tincture into a tincture bottle. Label it and keep it in a dark cupboard.

Because it is preserved in alcohol, it will not ‘go bad’ and will have a shelf life of many years. Most tinctures are still wonderfully effective 15 – 20 years later.

How to Take Pepper Juice:

Pepper juice isn’t going to taste hot (no spicy heat) at all if you dilute into water or juice.

Adults~

• Preventatively, take a dropper full of pepper juice every couple days in an inch of water to give your body the benefits while well.
• When there’s a bug going-around, increase it to every day or twice a day.
• Then at the slightest sign of a cold, cough, or sniffle bump it up to 3-4 times a day.

Older children~

• Squirt a full dropper (measures out to 1/4th teaspoon) of pepper juice into an inch of water in their cup and swallow it.

The smaller and younger their age, the less they need

• Make sure it is in some water so it is dilute enough for them.
• It can’t harm them or make them feel sick (unless you place that idea into their mind).
• Example, a four year-old would only get a 1/3 of a dropper.
• Likewise, a baby should only get 4-5 drops.
• They will likely take their cues from you, so don’t make it a big deal.

Here’s freshly made’ Pepper Juice (on the right), beginning to steep on the counter with my 4 beet kvass jugs.

Benefits of Pepper Juice:

Garlic~

• Vitamin C, B6 and selenium, manganese
• anti-inflammatory
• anti-fungal
• anti-bacterial
• anti-viral
• anti-aging
• improves immune function
• thins blood (to control blood pressure)
• increases anti-oxidants/fights free radicals in blood

Onions~

• anti-inflammatory
• anti-bacterial
• prevents constipation
• increases blood circulation
• rich in chromium, Vitamin C

Hot Peppers~

• analgesic -an excellent pain killer and stimulates production of endorphins
• studies show it to relieve headaches and sinus inflammation
• increases circulatory blood flow to the extremities and to the stomach
• increases the body’s metabolism and oxygen consumption – this means your body is burning extra calories, which helps weight loss.
• increases production of acidic digestive juices
• lowers blood pressure
• reduces local inflammation when applied topically, helps arthritis pain

A little cayenne powder has been sprinkled inside boots of scientists researching in the Antarctic to help them bear the extreme cold – it really does keep feet warm. An internal dose (1/4 t. cayenne pepper in water) will bring warmth and circulation to feet and hands.

Dr. Ziment, a pulmonary specialist at the University of California, Los Angeles, states that hot peppers are beneficial for the common cold, acting as an expectorant: “You’d be better off with hot salsa than menthol cough drops. Menthol cough drops not only dry out your throat, but paralyze the cilia – the tiny hair-like projections all along the airways.”

Ginger~

The Greeks and the Romans prized ginger. In medieval Britain, a pound of ginger was equal to the value to a sheep -only the wealthy could afford these.

Ginger is commonly used to treat various types of stomach problems, including motion sickness, morning sickness, colic, upset stomach, gas, diarrhea, nausea caused by cancer treatment, nausea and vomiting after surgery, as well as loss of appetite.

Other uses include pain relief from arthritis or muscle soreness, menstrual pain, upper respiratory tract infections, cough, and bronchitis. Ginger is also sometimes used for chest pain, low back pain, and stomach pain.

Another study was done by Phytotherapy Research Laboratory in Salt Lake City showing ginger more effective at relieving motion sickness than Dramamine.

Horseradish~

• aids in weight reduction
• expectorant – promotes expulsion of phlegm and mucous
• anti-cancer agent
• increases circulation systemically
• stimulates blood flow locally- relieves joint and muscle pain for rheumatic and arthritic conditions
• anti-inflammatory – similar to aspirin but without the side effect
• enables drainage of sinus pressure and helps clear infection
• counter irritant -interferes with the transmission of pain messages from peripheral nerves to the brain
• increases perspiration (good for detoxing)
• diuretic -increases production and elimination of urine (helps treat edema and kidney stones)
• anti-viral, anti-bacterial, anti-fungal -helps the body resist or destroy pathogenic micro-organisms
• increases appetite and stimulates digestion
• supports the liver as it detoxifies

Other tinctures I’ve written on besides Pepper Juice:

• It’s Elderberry Time ~ Making Cough Syrup and Tincture
• Tincture Making Directions: From Vanilla Extract To Medicinal Tinctures
• Making Elderberry Tincture
• Make Vanilla Extract

“Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers.” ~3 John 1:2