Betel Palm

Overview

Native to the Malaysian peninsula, originally found in tropical South-East Asia in the Philippines and the Malay Archipelago. Betel palm is possibly absent from very wild populations. It is widespread in cultivation cultivation and naturalization throughout including in the West Indies, and grows in Pacific, tropical regions of Asia and parts of Eastern Africa. It is cultivated and introduced as an ornament, or as a narcotic for its seeds, which are chewed. The nut used dried or fresh, fermented, or after boiling, roasting and baking.

Vernacular Names

Bluk (Malay), Puak (Srilanka), Luukmaak (Thai), Buñga (Philippines), Bin lang (Chinese), Areka yashi (Japanese), Fofal (Arabic), Arekanoot (Dutch), Bonga (Spanish).

Agroecology

A high temperature and high relative humidity are needed for the Betel palm. It prefers moist, well drained soil and a full sun position. It grows in the warm tropical lowlands, the coastal tropical, subtropical wet and tropical wet forests at altitudes from near sea level to 900 m. Best in low altitudes and tolerant to moderate elevations. Mean annual rainfall is 750-4 500 mm and mean annual temperature is 14-36 °C. It thrives on a wide variety of soil types with good drainage and good water holding capacity, from pH of 5-8.

Morphology

• Stems - erect, slender, unbranched, cylindrical and solitary, marked with scars of fallen leaves,15-25 m high.
• Leaves - up to 2.5 m long, pinnate with numerous linear, dark green, leaflets, 60-90 cm long.
• Flowers - 3 greenish-yellow sepals, 3 white petals, 6 stamens. Male flowers and female flowers with similar perianth and 3-celled ovaries, 1 cm long. Male flowers very numerous and  female flowers solitary or 2 or 3.
• Fruits - ovoid to ellipsoid, monolocular, one-seeded berry, smooth, greenishyellow turning orange when ripe, 4-6 cm long; with a thin fleshy pericarp, fibrous mesocarp.
• Seeds - conical, brown, hard kernel.

Cultivation

• Generative transmission occurs by seeds.
• Seed nuts are permitted to ripen entirely on the tree and then dry for 1-2 days under the sun before sowing in shallow pits 2.5 cm apart.
• The viability of the seed is short, so only fresh seeds can be used. Germination normally occurs within 6-13 weeks. Drying doesn't seem to increase the rate of germination.

Chemical Constituents

Polyphenols, arecoline, crude fiber, polysaccharides, lipid, condensed tannins, pholyphenolics, alkaloids, triterpenes, steroids, and fatty acids.

Traditional Medicinal Uses

• The betel palm is a stimulant herb that relieves hunger, weariness, and abdominal pain. It destroys and also has diuretic and laxative effects on intestinal parasites and other pathogens. It is used to expel tapeworms, particularly in veterinary medicine.
• The seeds used for anaemia, leucoderma, leprosy, obesity and worms are included in the plants. It is also used for dysentery and malaria prevention.
• It is both a purgative and an ointment for nasal ulcers when mixed with other ingredients.
• In cases of constipation with flatulence and bloating, the rind is often used as a laxative and a dierutic in the treatment of oedema.
• In various parasitic helminth infections such as those caused by taenia, the areca nut decoction as well as arecoline and its salts were found to be successful.
• For stomach pain, the pulp of a young nut is used.
• In the case of fever and headache, juice from young nuts is used for external use.
• Green and mature fruit kernels, often with the leaves or fruit of betel pepper and slaked lime, are chewed as an astringent and stimulant.