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The areca palm is best known for its fruit, although it is
called a nut and commonly known as betel nut. The nuts, known for
their bitter and tangy taste, raw or dried, are used for chewing.
The nut is a mild stimulant, commonly used in the tropical regions
of Asia, but it must be activated by lime (calcium hydroxide).
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The fruit is sold in markets and by street sellers. It is wrapped in the Betel leaf
(Piper betle),
which gives some taste, and a white lime paste that activates the arecoline, the stimulant in the fruit.
The chewing pack is called a betel quid. Chewing the quid gives your lips a distinctive redness (right) often seen
among elderly people of southeast Asia. Other substances are often
added to the quid, in particular spices, such as cardamom, saffron, cloves,
aniseed,
turmeric, mustard or sweeteners according to local tastes.
Demand for the nut is so high that in Taiwan, where it is the second-largest
cash crop after rice, the hillsides have been illegally cleared to plant the
palm causing erosion because its roots are too shallow to bind the topsoil. |
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Betel nut stained lips |
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In Meghalaya, north-eastern India the trunk of young palms are
hollowed out to guide the roots of the Indian fig to build
living bridges. |
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