_Nuces Arecæ vel Betel_; _Areca Nuts_, _Betel Nuts_; F. _Semence ou
Noix d’Arec_; G. _Arekanüsse_, _Betelnüsse_.
=Botanical Origin=—_Areca Catechu_ L., a most elegant palm,[2500] with
a straight smooth trunk, 40 to 50 feet high and about 20 inches in
circumference. The inflorescence is arranged on a branching spadix,
with the male flowers on its upper portion and the female near its
base. The tree is cultivated in the Malayan Archipelago, the warmer
parts of the Indian Peninsula, Ceylon, Indo-China and the Phillippines.
It is probably indigenous to the first-named region.
=History=—The Areca palm is mentioned in the Sanskrit writings as
_Guvāca_. It is called in Chinese _Pin-lang_, a name apparently derived
from _Pinang_, a designation for the tree in the Malay Islands, whence
the Chinese anciently derived their supply of the seeds. The oldest
Chinese work to mention the _pin-lang_ is the _San-fu-huang-tu_, a
description of Chang-an, the capital of the Emperor Wu-ti, B.C. 140-86.
It is there stated that after the conquest of Yunnan, B.C. 111, some
remarkable trees and plants of the south were taken to the capital, and
among them more than 100 _pin-lang_, which were planted in the imperial
gardens. Bretschneider,[2501] to whose researches we are indebted for
this information, cites several other Chinese works, from the first
century downwards, showing that areca nuts were brought from the then
unsubdued provinces of Southern China, the Malayan Archipelago and
India. The custom of presenting areca nut to a guest is alluded to in a
work of the 4th century.
[2499] _Science Papers_, 368.
[2500] Bentley and Trimen, _Medic. Plants_, part 21 (1877).
[2501] _On the study of Chinese botanical works_, Foochow, 1870. 27.
The Arabian writers, as for instance Ibn Batuta, were well acquainted
with the areca nut, which they called _Fófal_, and with the Indian
custom of masticating it with lime.
Areca nut, though held in great estimation among Asiatics as a
masticatory, and supposed to strengthen the gums, sweeten the breath
and improve digestion, has not until recently been regarded as
possessing any particular medicinal powers beyond those of a mild
astringent.[2502] It has often been administered as a vermifuge to
dogs, and in India and China is given with the same intent to the human
subject. Some successful trials recently made of it for the expulsion
of tapeworm have led to it being included in the _Additions to the
British Pharmacopœia of 1867_, published in 1874.
=Description=—The areca palm produces a smooth ovoid fruit, of the
size of a small hen’s egg, slightly pointed at its upper end, and
crowned with the remains of the stigmas. Its exterior consists of a
thick pericarp, at first fleshy, but, when quite mature, composed of
fine stringy fibres running lengthwise, with much coarser ones below
them. This fibrous coat is consolidated into a thin crustaceous shell
or endocarp, which surrounds the solitary seed. The latter has the
shape of a very short rounded cone, scarcely an inch in height; it
is depressed at the centre of the base, and has frequently a tuft of
fibres on one side of the depression, indicating its connexion with
the pericarp. The testa, which seems to be partially adherent to the
endocarp, is obscurely defined, and inseparable from the nucleus.
Its surface is conspicuously marked with a network of veins, running
chiefly from the hilum. When a seed is split open, it is seen that
these veins extend downwards into the white albumen, reaching almost to
its centre, thus giving the seed a strong resemblance both in structure
and appearance to a nutmeg. The embryo, which is small and conical, is
seated at the base of the seed. Areca nuts are dense and ponderous, and
very difficult to break or cut. They have when freshly broken a weak
cheesy odour, and taste slightly astringent.
=Microscopic Structure=—The white horny albumen is made up of large
thick-walled cells, loaded with an albuminoid matter, which on addition
of iodine assumes a brown hue. The cell-walls display large pores,
the structure of which, after boiling in caustic ley, becomes clearly
evident in polarized light. The brown tissue which runs into the
albumen is of loose texture, and resembles the corresponding structure
in a nutmeg. The thin walls of its cells are marked with fine spiral
striations, and in this tissue, as well as on the brown surface of the
seed, delicate spiral vessels are scattered. All the brown cells assume
a rich red if moistened with caustic ley, and a dingy green with ferric
chloride.
=Chemical Composition=—We have exhausted the powder of the seeds,
previously dried at 100° C., with ether; and thereby obtained a
_colourless_ solution, which after evaporation left an oily liquid,
concreting on cooling. This fatty matter, representing 14 per cent.
of the seed, was thoroughly crystalline and melted at 39° C. By
saponification we obtained from it a crystalline fatty acid fusing at
41° C., which may consequently be a mixture of lauric and myristic
acids. Some of the fatty matter was boiled with water: the water
on evaporation afforded an extremely small trace of tannin but no
crystals, which had catechin been present should have been left.
[2502] J. J. Berlu, _The Treasury of Drugs Unlocked_, London, 1724, no
doubt had before him the areca nuts in speaking of “_Nuces indicæ_ (see
also p. 503, note 2), like a nutmeg in shape, in chewing turns red; it
is said they will make one drunk ... but I could never find it.”
The powdered seeds which had been treated with ether were then
exhausted by cold spirit of wine (·832), which afforded 14·77 per
cent. (reckoned on the original seeds) of a red amorphous _tannic
matter_, which after drying, proved to be but little soluble in water,
whether cold or boiling. Submitting to destructive distillation, it
afforded _Pyrocatechin_. Its aqueous solution is not altered by ferrous
sulphate, unless an alkali is added, when it assumes a violet hue, with
separation of a copious dark purplish precipitate. On addition of a
ferric salt in minute quantity to the aqueous solution of the tannic
matter, a fine green tint is produced, quickly turning brown by a
further addition of the test, and violet by an alkali. An abundant dark
precipitate is also formed.
The seeds having been exhausted by both ether and spirit of wine,
were treated with water, which removed from them chiefly mucilage
precipitable by alcohol. The alcohol thus used afforded on filtration
traces of an acid, the examination of which was not pursued. After
exhaustion with ether, spirit of wine and water, a dark brown solution
is got by digesting the residue in ammonia: from this solution, an
acid throws down an abundant brown precipitate, not soluble even in
boiling alcohol. We have not been able to obtain crystals from an
aqueous decoction of the seeds, nor by exhausting them directly with
boiling spirit of wine. We have come therefore to the conclusion that
_Catechin_ (p. 243) is not a constituent of areca nuts, and that any
extract, if ever made from them, must be essentially different to the
_Catechu of Acacia_ or of _Nauclea_, and rather to be considered a kind
of tannic matter of the nature of _Ratanhia-red_ or _Cinchona-red_.
By incinerating the powdered seeds, 2·26 per cent. were obtained of
a brown ash, which, besides peroxide of iron, contained phosphate of
magnesium.
=Commerce=—Areca nuts are sold in India both in the husk (pericarp)
and without it, and the two sorts are enumerated in the Customs
Returns under distinct heads. Their widespread consumption in the East
gives rise to an enormous trade, of which some notion may be formed
by a consideration of the few statistics bearing upon it which are
accessible.
Thus, Ceylon exported of areca nuts in the year 1871, 66,543 cwt.,
value £62,593; in 1872, 71,715 cwt.,—the latter quantity entirely to
India; in 1875 of the total export of 94,567 cwt. 86,446 were shipped
to India.[2503]
The Madras Presidency largely trades in the same commodity. In the year
1872-1873 there were shipped thence to Bombay 43,958 cwt., besides
about two millions of the entire fruit.[2504] An extensive traffic in
areca nuts is carried on at Singapore and especially in Sumatra.
=Uses=—Powdered areca nut may be given for the expulsion of tapeworm
in the dose of 4 to 6 drachms, taken in milk. The remedy should be
administered to the patient after a fast of about twelve hours; some
recommend the previous exhibition of a purgative. It is said to be
efficacious against _lumbricus_ as well as _tænia_.
The charcoal afforded by burning areca nuts in a close vessel is
sold as a tooth powder; but except greater density, it possesses no
advantage over the charcoal from ordinary wood.
[2503] Ceylon Blue Books.
[2504] From the returns quoted at p. 571, note 5.
As a masticatory areca nut is chewed with a little lime and a leaf of
the Betel Pepper, _Piper Betle_ L. The nut for this purpose is used in
a young and tender state, or is prepared by boiling in water; it is
sometimes combined with aromatics, as camphor or cardamom.