ABSTRACT
This chapter provides information on the uses, folk medicine, chemistry, germplasm, distribution, ecology, cultivation, harvesting, yields, energy, and biotic factors of Betel-Nut Palm. Betel chewing is often considered as an after-dinner or social affair. The use of Betel-nut is as a breath sweetening masticatory, enjoyed for centuries by about one-tenth the human population. Excessive use of betel-nut causes loss of appetite, salivation, and general degeneration of the body. Often slices of the nut, together with a little lime and other ingredients according to taste, are folded in a Betel Pepper leaf and fastened with a clove. The nut, in the form or ghees, powders, bolmes, or enemas, is said to be a folk remedy for abdominal tumors. Nuts contain the alkaloids, arecoline, arecaine and arecolidine, isoguvacine, guvacine, guvacoline; tannins, fats, carbohydrates, and proteins, and some Vitamin A.
