Cayenne Pepper Drops: a botanical guide

Cayenne belongs to the same family as tobacco and the potato. Turmeric has no wild population left at all. Six plants go into this bottle, from four different families, and the parts used range from a pressed hedgerow berry to a dried unripe peppercorn.

Lead botanical: Cayenne pepper, Capsicum annuum L. — fruit
Also in the blend: Hawthorn, turmeric, black ginger, beetroot, black pepper
Format: 60 ml liquid drops. Alcohol-free. No capsules.
Serving: 2 ml — 600 mg of botanicals. 30 doses a bottle.
Allergen note: Contains nightshade and ginger-family plants. Free from gluten, soy and dairy.
Category: Food supplement. Not a medicine.

01The six plants

This is a six-botanical liquid, not a single-plant extract. Every species comes from a different genus, and the part used changes from plant to plant.

Cayenne pepper (Capsicum annuum L.) is a nightshade — family Solanaceae, alongside tomato, potato, aubergine and tobacco. The part used is the fruit, the pod. The species came out of Central and South America and was carried round the world after the fifteenth century. Commercial cayenne is farmed rather than wild-harvested, with large growing areas in India, China, Mexico and East Africa. The pungency comes from a group of compounds called capsaicinoids, of which capsaicin is the best known.

Hawthorn (Crataegus species, chiefly Crataegus monogyna Jacq. and Crataegus laevigata (Poir.) DC.) is a thorny tree or shrub in the rose family, Rosaceae, and one of the commonest hedgerow trees in Britain. It is native across Europe, North Africa and western Asia. We use a juice concentrate made from the fruit — the small red haw berry — rather than the leaf and flower. Fruit is gathered from wild and hedgerow trees as well as from planted stands, which makes hawthorn the one botanical in this blend that is routinely wild-collected rather than farmed.

Turmeric (Curcuma longa L.) is a herbaceous perennial in the ginger family, Zingiberaceae. The part used is the rhizome — the swollen underground stem, not a true root. India grows the large majority of the world crop. The orange-yellow pigments are the curcuminoids, of which curcumin is the principal one.

Turmeric is not known in the wild as a distinct species. It exists only in cultivation.

Black ginger (Kaempferia parviflora Wall. ex Baker) shares the family, Zingiberaceae, but not the genus: it is not culinary ginger (Zingiber officinale) and it is not the same plant. The part used is the rhizome, whose flesh is a deep purple-black rather than yellow. It is native to mainland South East Asia — northern Thailand, Laos and Myanmar — and is cultivated there, mostly on smallholdings.

Beetroot (Beta vulgaris L.) belongs to the family Amaranthaceae; older references place it in Chenopodiaceae. The part used is the swollen root. It is a fully domesticated crop, bred from the wild sea beet of European coastlines, and grown across temperate Europe including the UK. The deep red colour comes from pigments called betalains, chiefly betanin.

Black pepper (Piper nigrum L.) is a woody climbing vine, family Piperaceae. The part used is the dried unripe fruit — the peppercorn. It is native to the Malabar coast of southern India and is cultivated in India, Vietnam, Indonesia, Brazil and Sri Lanka. Its pungency, and its best-studied constituent, is the alkaloid piperine.

Cayenne pepper: Capsicum annuum L. — Solanaceae — fruit — cultivated
Hawthorn: Crataegus spp. — Rosaceae — fruit (as juice concentrate) — wild-collected and planted
Turmeric: Curcuma longa L. — Zingiberaceae — rhizome — cultivated only
Black ginger: Kaempferia parviflora Wall. ex Baker — Zingiberaceae — rhizome — cultivated
Beetroot: Beta vulgaris L. — Amaranthaceae — root (as juice concentrate) — cultivated
Black pepper: Piper nigrum L. — Piperaceae — dried unripe fruit — cultivated

02What's in our product

A liquid in a 60 ml dropper bottle. No capsules, so no capsule shell, no gelatin and no vegetarian HPMC casing to think about. The base is water and vegetable glycerine, and there is no alcohol in it.

Each 2 ml dose delivers 600 mg of botanicals in total, across all six extracts and concentrates. Our label declares the blend as a total rather than breaking the 600 mg down plant by plant, and it prints no per-botanical extract ratio. We will not quote one here. Stating a number we do not publish would be inventing it.

Extract ratios are worth understanding anyway, because you will meet them on other products. A ratio such as 10:1 is an input-to-output weight comparison during manufacture: 10 kg of dried raw plant material processed down to 1 kg of finished extract. So 100 mg of a 10:1 extract derives from 1,000 mg — one gram — of starting plant. A 4:1 extract is weaker: 100 mg of it comes from 400 mg of raw material. What the ratio describes is concentration during processing. It says nothing by itself about the level of any individual constituent, which is why some extracts also carry a standardisation figure, such as a stated percentage of curcuminoids. Two consequences. A bigger first number is not automatically better, and ratios from different manufacturers are not comparable unless the starting material and the solvent match.

The word "concentrate" on the hawthorn and beetroot lines means something different again. Juice is pressed from the fruit or root and water is removed to concentrate it. No solvent extraction is involved.

Format: Liquid drops in a dropper bottle. No capsules, no tablets.
Bottle size: 60 ml
Dose: 2 ml
Botanicals per 2 ml dose: 600 mg total across the six-extract blend
Doses per bottle: 30 (60 ml divided by 2 ml). At one dose a day, a bottle lasts around a month.
Botanical ingredients: Cayenne Pepper Extract, Turmeric Root Extract, Black Ginger Extract, Hawthorn Juice Concentrate, Black Pepper Extract, Beetroot Juice Concentrate
Other ingredients: Purified water, vegetable glycerine, sodium alginate, potassium sorbate, sodium benzoate
Alcohol: None. This is an alcohol-free liquid, not a tincture.
Suitable for vegans: Yes. 100% vegan and non-GMO.
Allergens: Free from gluten, soy, dairy and common allergens. Note that cayenne is a nightshade (Solanaceae) and both turmeric and black ginger are in the ginger family — relevant if you have a known plant allergy. See the safety section.
Manufacture: Produced in a facility adhering to Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP).
Category: Food supplement. Not a medicine.

The two preservatives, potassium sorbate and sodium benzoate, are standard permitted preservatives in liquid supplements and soft drinks. A water-based botanical liquid with no alcohol in it needs protecting once opened. Sodium alginate, derived from brown seaweed, is a thickener and suspending agent: it holds the botanical solids in even suspension instead of letting them settle into a layer at the bottom.

03How to take it

The label direction is 2 ml. Take it straight into the mouth from the dropper, or add it to water, juice or coffee and stir well.

Using the dropper: squeeze the rubber bulb, release it with the glass tube in the liquid to draw the dose up, then check the graduation marks on the pipette before dispensing. Squeeze again to release. Wipe the pipette and replace the cap firmly. Taking it directly, keep the pipette off your mouth and tongue — otherwise saliva goes back into the bottle.

Diluting in a glass of water is the gentler option, and the one to choose first if you have never taken a capsaicin-containing product before. Stir it. This is a suspension, and left standing in a glass it separates.

Timing. The label does not specify a time of day. Pick one you will actually remember and keep to it.

With or without food. The label does not specify this either. In practice many people find capsaicin-containing preparations sit better taken with or just after food rather than on an empty stomach. If you get burning or discomfort in the stomach, the sensible first adjustment is food plus more dilution. If that does not settle it, stop.

Do not exceed the stated dose. With a capsaicin-containing product, going past 2 ml mainly increases the chance of gastric irritation.

Storage. Keep the bottle tightly closed, cool, dry and out of direct sunlight. Not above a hob, not on a sunny windowsill, not in a steamy bathroom cabinet. Keep it out of the sight and reach of children — a dropper bottle of red liquid is exactly the sort of thing a child will investigate. Use by the best-before date printed on the pack.

04Taste and format

An honest description rather than a sales one. Neat, it is warm and peppery. The heat is real — capsaicin from the cayenne, piperine from the black pepper — and it arrives a second or two after swallowing, at the back of the throat rather than instantly on the tongue. At 2 ml it is not chilli-sauce hot. It is noticeably hot, and if you dislike spice you will notice it.

Under the heat sits earthiness from the turmeric and black ginger, and a sweet, mineral, slightly muddy note from the beetroot. Hawthorn fruit concentrate adds mild tartness. The vegetable glycerine base gives the liquid a syrupy body and a background sweetness that takes some of the edge off. No ethanol burn, because there is no ethanol.

The smell is mild, mostly warm spice and beetroot. The colour is a deep red-brown.

Turmeric and beetroot both stain. Keep the dropper off worktops, tea towels, light-coloured clothing and grouting, and rinse the glass fairly promptly rather than leaving it to dry. Mixed into coffee, the flavour reads as spiced rather than neutral; juice masks it better than water does, particularly something acidic like orange or apple.

This blend exists only as drops. There is no capsule version, so the usual capsule questions — shell material, swallowing size, how many per serving — never arise. Drops suit people who dislike swallowing capsules, and they let you dilute the dose. Against that: liquid is more awkward to carry, the cap has to be closed properly, and the taste is unavoidable.

05Safety, cautions and interactions

This is the section worth reading properly. A blend of six botanicals carries the cautions of all six. Nothing below is a claim about what the product does — these are safety points, drawn from regulator and monograph sources where they exist, and flagged as limited where the data is thin.

Who should not take it

Under-18s. This product is for adults. The EMA herbal monograph on Crataegus (hawthorn) does not recommend use in children and adolescents under 18. The EMA herbal monograph on Capsici fructus (capsicum) restricts use to adults over 18. The EMA public summary for Curcumae longae rhizoma (turmeric) states turmeric medicines should only be used in adults.
Anyone pregnant or breastfeeding. Safe use of these preparations in pregnancy and breastfeeding has not been established. Do not take it. This is the standard position across EMA herbal monographs where human data in pregnancy is absent.
Anyone allergic to chilli, paprika or capsaicin. The EMA herbal monograph on capsicum is explicit that capsicum preparations must not be used by people allergic to capsaicin or other capsaicin sources such as paprika and chilli. Cayenne is a nightshade, so the same applies if you react to nightshade plants.
Anyone with a known allergy to ginger-family plants (turmeric, ginger, cardamom, galangal), given the turmeric and black ginger content.
Anyone with active liver disease, or a history of drug-induced liver injury — see the turmeric section below — without first speaking to their doctor.

Capsaicin and the stomach

Capsaicin is a gastric irritant in some people. Burning, reflux, nausea, stomach ache or loose stools are the reported effects, and they are more likely on an empty stomach or at higher intakes. If you have gastritis, peptic ulcer disease, gastro-oesophageal reflux disease, inflammatory bowel disease or irritable bowel syndrome, speak to your pharmacist or doctor before taking a capsaicin-containing supplement, and be prepared for it not to agree with you. Stop if you get persistent burning or pain.

Capsaicin also irritates skin, eyes and mucous membranes on direct contact. Wash your hands after handling the dropper. If the liquid gets in your eyes, rinse thoroughly with water. Do not apply it to skin — the EMA monograph covering topical capsicum products is for a different route, different preparations and different strengths, and none of it transfers to this product.

Black pepper and piperine — the biggest interaction flag here

Piperine, the main pungent constituent of black pepper, inhibits both the drug-metabolising enzyme CYP3A4 and the transporter P-glycoprotein. Both sit in the gut wall and liver and both play a large part in clearing many oral medicines on their first pass through the body. Inhibit them and blood levels of the affected medicine can rise.

In a published human study, piperine at 20 mg a day for ten days increased exposure to a single dose of the antihistamine fexofenadine by around 68%.

That study is the concrete evidence, not a theoretical concern. Pharmacokinetic modelling studies have predicted meaningful increases in exposure to CYP3A4 substrates including simvastatin, ciclosporin, nifedipine, triazolam, ritonavir and alfentanil. Investigators publishing this work have advised caution where black pepper intake reaches roughly 20 mg of piperine a day alongside CYP3A4 substrate medicines.

The practical point: piperine can change how your body handles some prescription medicines. That matters most for drugs with a narrow margin between an effective and a toxic level — for example digoxin, ciclosporin, tacrolimus, some antiepileptics and some HIV medicines. If you take any regular prescription medicine, show your pharmacist this product's ingredient list before you start.

Turmeric and curcumin

Two things to know.

Liver. Regulators in several countries have acted on rare reports of liver injury linked to turmeric and curcumin products. Australia's Therapeutic Goods Administration has issued a safety advisory that medicines and supplements containing Curcuma longa or curcumin may, rarely, cause liver injury. Health Canada has moved to require liver warnings on turmeric and curcuminoid supplement labels, describing the effect as idiosyncratic — meaning unpredictable and not dose-related in an obvious way. There is also a published case report of drug-induced liver injury associated with a turmeric-and-black-pepper supplement specifically; piperine increases curcumin absorption, which is the plausible mechanism. Stop taking this product and seek medical advice promptly if you develop yellowing of the skin or eyes, dark urine, pale stools, unusual tiredness, loss of appetite, nausea or pain in the upper right abdomen.

Medicines. Curcumin has documented interaction potential with anticoagulant and antiplatelet medicines — cases of raised INR in people taking warfarin have been reported — and France's food safety agency ANSES has flagged the risk of curcumin interacting with anticoagulants, some cancer medicines and immunosuppressants. If you take warfarin, a direct oral anticoagulant (apixaban, rivaroxaban, edoxaban, dabigatran), clopidogrel, aspirin as an antiplatelet, chemotherapy or an immunosuppressant, do not start this product without talking to the clinician who prescribes it.

The EMA public summary for turmeric lists dry mouth, flatulence and stomach irritation as possible side effects. European herbal medicine references have long contraindicated turmeric preparations in bile duct obstruction, and advise caution with gallstones — check with your doctor if that applies to you.

Hawthorn

The EMA herbal monograph on Crataegus spp. (leaf with flower) lists hypersensitivity to the plant as its only contraindication and reports no interactions in the finalised monograph. Our product uses hawthorn fruit juice concentrate, and that monograph covers leaf-and-flower preparations, so treat it as a guide rather than a direct match.

Two points still stand. The EMA documentation notes that hawthorn use may increase the risk of bleeding after surgery, with the mechanism unknown. And hawthorn has a long-documented association with cardiovascular medicines: a controlled study found hawthorn did not significantly alter digoxin pharmacokinetics at the doses studied, but mild additive effects with digoxin and with beta blockers, and additive blood-pressure lowering with antihypertensives, are repeatedly described in the interaction literature. If you take any heart or blood-pressure medication — digoxin, a beta blocker, an ACE inhibitor, a calcium channel blocker, a diuretic, a nitrate — speak to your doctor or pharmacist before taking this product, and do not stop or change a prescribed medicine.

Beetroot

Red urine and red stools are the one to expect. Beetroot pigments (betalains) pass through unchanged in a proportion of people — commonly cited as roughly 10 to 14% — producing pink or red urine, and sometimes reddish stools. This is called beeturia. It is harmless and it clears within a day or two of stopping. Worth knowing about in advance, because it looks exactly like blood and causes real alarm otherwise. Do not simply assume, though: if the colour persists after you stop the product, or you have any pain, or you are not sure, get it checked.

Beetroot is high in oxalate. If you have a personal or family history of calcium-oxalate kidney stones, ask your doctor before taking a beetroot-containing supplement regularly. Beetroot is also a source of dietary nitrate; if you take nitrate medicines or blood-pressure medication, mention this product to your pharmacist.

Black ginger

The safety data here is thin and we are not going to pretend otherwise. Kaempferia parviflora has no EMA herbal monograph, and we found no EU or UK novel food authorisation for it. Published human trials are small and short — typically a few weeks to a few months, in healthy adults. Long-term safety, use in people with existing conditions, and interactions with medicines have not been well characterised. That is an absence of evidence rather than evidence of harm, but it is a reason not to take it indefinitely without review, and a reason for anyone with a health condition to check with a clinician first.

Before surgery or a dental procedure

Stop taking this product at least two weeks before any planned surgery, and tell your surgeon, anaesthetist or dentist that you have been taking it. Two of the six botanicals are relevant: EMA documentation notes hawthorn may increase bleeding risk after surgery, and curcumin has recognised antiplatelet potential. Piperine's effect on drug metabolism is also relevant to anaesthetic and analgesic dosing.

How long to take it for

There is no established duration limit for this specific blend taken orally, because no monograph covers this combination. Two reference points give a sense of how regulators treat the components: the EMA monograph limits topical capsicum preparations to three weeks of continuous use followed by a break of at least two weeks, and the EMA turmeric summary advises consulting a healthcare practitioner if symptoms continue beyond two weeks. Neither transfers directly. The sensible approach is not to take it continuously and indefinitely without review — take periodic breaks, and if you intend to use it long term, raise it with your GP or pharmacist.

When to speak to a pharmacist first

Book a two-minute conversation with your pharmacist before starting if any of these apply to you:

You take any regular prescription medicine at all — the piperine content makes this the default advice.
You take an anticoagulant or antiplatelet: warfarin, apixaban, rivaroxaban, edoxaban, dabigatran, clopidogrel, low-dose aspirin.
You take heart or blood-pressure medicine: digoxin, beta blockers, ACE inhibitors, calcium channel blockers, diuretics, nitrates.
You take a statin, particularly simvastatin.
You take an immunosuppressant (ciclosporin, tacrolimus), chemotherapy, or HIV medicines.
You take an antiepileptic, or any medicine your prescriber has described as needing blood-level monitoring.
You have liver disease, gallstones or bile duct problems, kidney stones, or a stomach or bowel condition.
You are due surgery, or you are having tests where a supplement might affect results.
You are already taking another turmeric, curcumin, cayenne, hawthorn or beetroot supplement — check you are not doubling up.

Pharmacists give this advice free and do not need an appointment. Take the bottle or a photo of the label with you.

If something goes wrong

Stop taking the product and seek medical advice if you get a rash, swelling or difficulty breathing (stop immediately and seek urgent help), persistent stomach pain or burning, or any of the liver signs listed above. Suspected side effects of food supplements can be reported to the Food Standards Agency; if you are also taking medicines, your pharmacist can advise on reporting through the MHRA Yellow Card scheme.

06Where to find it

The product covered by this guide is Cayenne Pepper Drops — a 60 ml alcohol-free dropper bottle, 2 ml per dose, 600 mg of botanicals per dose, 30 doses per bottle, vegan and non-GMO.

UK Standard delivery: Free on orders of £28 or more. Otherwise £2.99.
UK Express delivery: £5.99. Free on orders of £48 or more.
Dispatch: Within 1–2 business days.
Delivery time: Typically 1–4 business days, by Royal Mail or Amazon Logistics.
Returns: You have 30 days from receipt to request a return. The item must be unopened, untampered, in its original packaging, with proof of purchase. Email hello@probotanics.co.uk to start; if the return is accepted we send a return shipping label and instructions. Items sent back without requesting a return first are not accepted. For damaged, defective or wrong items, contact us immediately on receipt.
Questions: hello@probotanics.co.uk

ProBotanics Ltd is a UK company, number 13685177, registered at 86-90 Paul Street, London, EC2A 4NE. The company was incorporated on 18 October 2021 as Peak Supplements Ltd and renamed ProBotanics Ltd on 28 November 2023, when the brand moved away from its original sports and bodybuilding range to single-botanical food supplements.

Cayenne Pepper Drops is a food supplement, not a medicine. It is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any medical condition. Food supplements should not be used as a substitute for a varied and balanced diet and a healthy lifestyle. If you are pregnant, breastfeeding, taking any medication or under medical care, speak to your doctor or pharmacist before use. Keep out of the sight and reach of children. Do not exceed the recommended dose.

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