Areca catechu is cultivated in India, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Malaysia and the Philippines. The trunk is unbranched, up to 12-15 meters. Betel nut is the seed of the palm tree of the Palmae family. The betel leaf is the leaf of Piperaceae (Piper betle). The betel nut is slightly smaller than the egg, the skin fiber, contains a seed, that is, betel nut. The endosperm is hard and has taupe spots. The fruit is harvested before the fruit matures from August to November, peeled, boiled, cut into thin slices to dry, and dark brown or black after drying. Betel nut is a raw material of catechu, and its main alkaloid is iscoline, which is used as an anthelmintic by veterinarians. Another movie with the same name, "betel nut."
ã€chemical composition】
The seeds contain about 0.5% of the total alkaloids, mainly arecoline, and a small amount are arecaidine, guvolaline, guvacine, and alaginine ( Isoguvacine), arecolidine, homo arecoline, and the like are all present in combination with tannic acid. The tannin content is about 15%, with (a) - catechu essence, (a) - epicatechin essence, original cornflower amaranth elements B-1, B-2, B-7, A-1 and three three Polymer (I, II, V), two tetramers (III, IV), two pentamers (VI, VII). Fat oil content 14% to 18%. Fatty acids are lauric acid, myristic acid, palmitic acid, stearic acid, decanoic acid, oleic acid, linoleic acid, dodecenoic acid and tetradecanoic acid. In addition, it also contains mannose, galactose, sucrose, γ-catechin, leuco-cyanidin, red caprine (areca acid) and saponins.