International Journal of Medical and Health Research

Authors
Keshava Bhat S, Ashwin D, Mythri S, Sukesh Bhat

Abstract
Arecanut is the fruit / seed / endosperm of an oriental palm Areca catechu L. growing in most of the South and Southeast Asian countries. This nut is generally used for mastication by millions of people in different parts of the world as it is believed to have many medicinal properties. It is chewed mainly along with several other ingredients such as the leaf or inflorescence of Piper betle, calcium hydroxide, catechu, etc. Such combination of chewing product is commonly called as betel quid or pan. In India, chewing of arecanut or betel quid, is a good old practice, the tradition of which goes back to 650 BC. Arecanut has very important place in religious functions in many Asian and Oceanic countries. This nut has also exhibited ample medicinal properties and most of them are now authenticated by proper Scientific evidences. In China, there are already more than 30 medicines formulated and marketed using areca nut as one of the ingredients. In spite of such medicinal properties of areca nut, it is also tagged as carcinogenic by several researchers. It is equally true that there are several other contradictory research results which said that arecanut is not carcinogenic in normal dose but even cures cancer. Such reports are collected and highlighted in this paper.