I have never tried this but based on all of the positive comments on various sites, it sure sounds like it works. If you have a sore throat, a site named Earth Clinic has several solutions. Here is the the recipe that the My Finance Journey blog explains:

I don’t think there is really a science to this thing as if you read around there are tons of different recipes and all seem to have very good results. So here is what I did to make my cayenne sore throat elixir.

* 1 standard drinking glass of hot to warm water
* 1 teaspoon of cayenne powder
* a couple pinches of salt for good measure (most people say its not necessary but it won’t hurt)

That’s it! Just simply take a mouthful and gargle away. There are two things that I want to point out though. One you will need to constantly stir the elixir right before you gargle as the cayenne likes to settle at the bottom and two you may want to gargle with your eyes closed as maybe I’m just a bad gargler, but one time I did gargle some of the mixture into my eye (note: cayenne pepper in the eye burns)

Earth Clinic via My Finance Journey
Photo: david4bruce on Flickr