Share The Seeds
Botany and Research => Botanical Information => Topic started by: Sunshine on August 13, 2013, 12:21:04 AM
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(http://sharetheseeds.me/forum/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=460.0;attach=1037)
Datasheet:Areca catechu ---
1. NOMENCLATURE
Synonyms:--- Areca guavaua nom. nud.
Common Names --- (english): Adike, arbor areka, areca, areca nut palm, arecanut tree, arecapalme, arecca, arekapalme, arekpalme, arequero
Common Names (non-english): ---
(Portuguese) ar'equier, ar'equir, arreck, ataykkamaram, avellana d'India, betelnuBpalme, betelnut tree, betel palm, buoga, blaubaum, catechupalme, fobal, fufal
(Arabic) f^ufal, ghowa, gooroaka, goorrecanut palm, gouvaka
(Sanskrit) gurvaca, kamuku, kamunnu, kavunnu
(Malayalam) mak, noix d'arec, paan suparim, pak-ku, pakkumaram
(Tamil) pan of India, papal
(Persian) pinang
(Malay) pinangpalme, pinglang,, tambul tuuffel puga, pugah
(Sanskrit) puwak, pyan, pyanbaum, sopari
(Hindi) supari, surattu supray
Taxonomic Position: --- Arecaccae, Palmae (Palm Family); Subfamily Ceroxylinae-Arecineae, Araceae tribe
2. DESCRIPTION
Plant Type: --- Palm Tree
Morphology: --- This fan palm tree can grow as tall as 25 meters and develop a trunk between 30 and 50 cm in diameter. The loculate fronds grow to some 2 meters in length. The male and female flowers are found in spadices located below the leaves. The palm can produce up to three such spadices, each which yields 150-200 fruits. The ovoid fruits, which can be as long as 7 cm in length, contain one brown, reticulate seed (the endosperm, or actual betel nut) that can weigh from 3 to 10 grams.
Similarity to Other Species: --- The betel palm is easily confused with the Caribbean kind palm (Roystonea regia) and with some species of the genus Veitchia, found in the Philippines and Oceania. It is difficult to distinguish from the closely related species Areca triandra Roxb. (India) and Areca vestiaria.
3. DISTRIBUTION AND ECOLOGY
Geographical Distribution: --- Almost all betel palms have been planted by humans. Since it can thrive only in regions with tropical rainforests, it is limited to such areas in Hindustan, Indochina, Pakistan, Sri Lanka (Ceylon), the Maldives, Madagascar, Egypt, East Africa, Arabia, Southern China, Taiwan, INdonesia, Malaysia, Fiji, and Melanesia. Betel palms grow wild in Malabar(India)
Native Habitat: --- The origin of the assumed wild form has not been ascertained, although it may have come from the Sunda Isles or the Philippines
Hardiness and Environmental Requirements: ---
Soil Requirements: --- The betel palm can grow in a variety of soil types.
4. PROPAGATION AND CYCLE
Types of Propagation: --- Cultivation is performed using pregerminated seeds.
Seed Germination Notes: ---
Life Cycle: --- The saplings need to grow in the shade, as they may otherwise fall victim to the intense tropical sun. It is for this reason that trees that grow quickly and provide shade (e.g., Erythrina indica Lam) are first planted in betel palm plantations.
5. HISTORY AND CULTURE ---
The name areca, which means "cavalier", may be derived from the Kanarese word adeke or the Malayalam adakka. In early Sanskrit works, the palm is referred to as gouvaka. It was already mentioned in Jataka and Pali writings. The first description of the palm, however, is purportedly that of Herodotus (ca. 340 B.C.E). Later, both the palm and the chewing of the betel were more or less precisely discussed by many Arabic and European travelers (e.g., Abd Allah Ibn Ahmad, Marco Polo, Vasco De Gamma, Garcia De Orta) in their travel reports. The british traveler R. Knox, in his Historical Relation of the island of Ceylon, was obviously impressed, and he described both the use of the betel nut and its economic significance. The first European pictorial representation of the betel nut is a copperplate engraving by Carolus Clusius in Aromatum ey simplicium aliquot medicamentorum....historia
6. PROPERTIES AND BENEFITS
Documented properties: --- Arecoline, the primary alkaloid, is a parasympathomimetic. It has stimulating effects, strongly promotes salivation, and has anthelmintic(worm killing) properties; it can also induce brachycardia (deceleration of the heartbeat) and tremors.
Parts of the plant with therapeutic/psychoactive value: --- The seed, or nut of the fruit.
Phytochemical Information: --- The seeds contain various alkaloids (0.3 to 0.6%) of a relatively simple chemical structure: 0.1 to 1.5% arecoline (primary alkaloid), as well as arecaine, arecaidine, arecolidine, guvacoline, isoguvacine, and guvacine. Tanning agents (tannins: galotannic acid, gallic acid, D-catechol, phlobatannin), mucilage, resin, carbohydrates (saccharose, galactan, mannan), proteins, saponines, carotene, minerals (calcium, phosphorus, iron), and fat (sitosterol) are also present. When betel nuts are chewed in combination with slaked lime, the alkaloid arecoline is transformed into arecaidine.
6. REFERENCES AND CITATIONS
STS Threads with Information: ---
External Links: ---
http://www.erowid.org/plants/betel/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Areca_nut
http://www.drugs.com/npc/betel-nut.html
http://www.healthline.com/natstandardcontent/betel-nut
http://www.kew.org/plant-cultures/plants/betelnut_grow_it.html
http://srinidhifarm.com/tips_arecanut.php
http://libweb.hawaii.edu/libdept/scitech/agnic/betel-cultivation.html
Citation Sources: ---
Encyclopedia Of Psychoactive Plants - Ethnopharmacology and its Applications by Christian Ratsch, Forward by Albert Hoffman
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Thank you very much for this :)
I was hoping someone would fill in the first, so perhaps we will get more along the way.
Great job, much appreciated.
Mandrake
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You are most welcome, Mandrake. :)
I'd like to recommend a change in the template wording, if I may;
It may be better to change 'phytochemical information' to 'Chemical Constituents'
Prior to writing this article I had never heard the term 'phytochemical'. Some people may not know the meaning of the word, just as I did before looking it up. Phytochemical may be more proper and professional sounding, but chemical constituents is more layman terms-like, if that makes any sense. Either way, people will have a decent grasp of what it means after reading the paragraph that follows.
Its not a big deal, I found I tend to be nitpicky with changes to forum related things, as I'm sure you know. ;)
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I'd like to recommend a change in the template wording, if I may;
It may be better to change 'phytochemical information' to 'Chemical Constituents'
Prior to writing this article I had never heard the term 'phytochemical'. Some people may not know the meaning of the word, just as I did before looking it up. Phytochemical may be more proper and professional sounding, but chemical constituents is more layman terms-like, if that makes any sense. Either way, people will have a decent grasp of what it means after reading the paragraph that follows.
Certainly. English is my third language (and not native) so corrections are welcome, particularly in technical matters.
I will edit the template.
Kind regards,
Mandrake