Common names in English include areca palm, areca nut palm, betel palm, betel nut palm, Indian nut, Pinang palm and catechu.[1] This palm is commonly called the betel tree because its fruit, the areca nut, which are often chewed along with the betel leaf, a leaf from a vine of the family Piperaceae.
Areca catechu is a medium-sized palm tree, growing straight to 20 m (66 ft) tall, with a trunk 10–15 cm (4–6 in) in diameter. The leaves are 1.5–2 m (4.9–6.6 ft) long, pinnate, with numerous, crowded leaflets.
The practice of chewing areca nuts originated in Island Southeast Asia, where the areca palm is native. The oldest known evidence of areca nut chewing was found in a burial pit in the Duyong Cave site in the Philippines (to which areca palms are native), which dates to around 4,630±250 BP. Its diffusion is closely tied to the Neolithic expansion of the Austronesian peoples. It was spread to the Indo-Pacific during prehistoric times, reaching Micronesia at 3,500 to 3,000 BP, Near Oceania at 3,400 to 3,000 BP; South India and Sri Lanka by 3,500 BP; Mainland Southeast Asia by 3,000 to 2,500 BP; Northern India by 1500 BP; and Madagascar by 600 BP. From India, it was also spread westwards to Persia and the Mediterranean. It was also previously present in the Lapita culture, based on archaeological remains dated from 3,600 to 2,500 BP, but it was not carried into Polynesia.[3]
The areca palm is also used as an interior landscaping species. It is often used in large indoor areas such as malls and hotels. It will not fruit or reach full size if grown in this way. Indoors, it is a slow-growing, low-water, high-light plant that is sensitive to spider mites and occasionally mealybugs.
In India, the dried fallen leaves are collected and hot-pressed into disposable palm leaf plates and bowls.[12]
^Kusumoto IT, Nakabayashi T, Kida H, Miyashiro H, Hattori M, Namba T, Shimotohno K (1995). "Screening of various plant extracts used in ayurvedic medicine for inhibitory effects on human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) protease". Phytotherapy Research. 9 (3): 180–184. doi:10.1002/ptr.2650090305. S2CID84577539.
^Rama Bhat P, Savitri V, Laxmi P, Jenitta E (2016). "A Study on the phytochemical analysis, silver nanoparticle synthesis and antibacterial activity from seed extract of Areca catechu L.". International Journal of Biochemistry Research & Review. 9 (1): 1–9.
^Hemantha Amarasinghe (2010). "Betel-quid chewing with or without tobacco is a major risk factor for oral potentially malignant disorders in Sri Lanka: A case-control study". Oral Oncology. 46 (4): 297–301. doi:10.1016/j.oraloncology.2010.01.017. PMID20189448.
^Ray JG, Chatterjee R, Chaudhuri K (2019). "Oral submucous fibrosis: A global challenge. Rising incidence, risk factors, management, and research priorities". Periodontology 2000. 80 (1): 200–212. doi:10.1111/prd.12277. PMID31090137. S2CID155089425.
