Areca Nut
Pronunciation:AR-i-kuh nut (also pronounced uh-REE-kuh nut)
Chemical Abstracts Service Registry Number:None
Formal Names:Areca catechu
Informal Names:Betel Nut, Katha, Pinang, Pugua
Type:Stimulant (pyridine alkaloids class).Seepage 18
Federal Schedule Listing:Unlisted
USA Availability:Nonprescription natural product, but restrictions apply to inter-
state commerce
Pregnancy Category:None
Uses.Accounts of areca nuts date back to at least 504B.C. They are about
the size of a cherry and come from palm trees in the Indian Ocean region,
grown in countries such as India, China, and the Philippines. Trees reach up
to 90 feet in height, and nuts are about an inch in diameter. The product is
used not only as a drug but also as a dye and in the leather tanning industry.
Drug use of areca nut is common in South Africa, India, Taiwan, and other
areas of South Asia and the Pacific basin. The product has been unfamiliar in
the United States, but is available and is used in some immigrant communities.
Areca nut is a popular recreational stimulant relieving tension and produc-
ing euphoria, regularly used by perhaps 200 million to 600 million persons,
making it one of the most popular substances in the world. Users commonly
put the nuts in a quid (a chewable cut) as withcocaor tobacco. Effects may
be unpleasant for new chewers: nausea, dizziness, burning sensation in the
mouth, a closing sensation in the throat. With perseverance, those unwanted
effects are replaced by desired ones. As withalcohol, in lands ranging from
India to New Guinea areca nut has a place in religious and other ceremonies
(engagements to marry, offerings to spirits), but the product’s main use is
secular. In some places, areca nut is a social lubricant, much as beer is used
in the United States. Paraphernalia involved with consuming areca nut may
be either utilitarian or highly decorated functional artwork. The product adds
a smell to the breath that many people find appealing. As with tobacco quids,
users typically spit out areca nut juice, staining walls or other targets. Because
such a practice may potentially promote the spread of disease, in some places
large cans are lined with plastic bags and used as spittoons.
Comments from one user make the substance sound like fast-actingcaf-