One stand out item on our trip was the usage of Betel nut by lots of Papuans including some quite young ones. It seemed to be a very important cultural and economic item - Betel nuts , and the associated packets of lime and bean type pod called Daka were to be found every place in usage and for sale. Betel nut palms where also very common in and around the villages we visited.
Binomial name : Areca catchu
Common name : Betel nut
It is a tall slender plant up to about 30m- a bit like a Bangalow palm and bears clusters of seeds ( actually a drupe) that are green when unripe and yellow when ripe. The seed has an outer covering (husk) and a soft inner part when freshly cut or broken open. This is the part that is chewed.
The picture above shows the amazing climbing skills of the natives- using a small loop of rope around the tree and his feet this man scaled the tree as if he was walking on flat ground.
There is a very long history of usage of this plant by humans in such places as India , Sri Lanka and the Pacific Islands such as PNG. The Aborigines did not seem to use it. About 10-20% of the world's population use it as a mild stimulant – it is the 4th most widely used psychoactive substance after nicotine, alcohol and caffeine.
In the parts of PNG we visited, a portion of the nut was first chewed and then a bean like plant pod called Daka was dipped in lime and a part of this was bitten off and chewed along with the Betel Nut.
In other parts of PNG ( I think I saw some of this in the Rabaul market) the leaf is also used to wrap a part of the seed and both are then chewed. The most obvious visible effect of chewing Betel Nut is dramatically red lips and gums!
Clinical effects : the active drugs (mainly arecoline) have a quick onset and the effect seems to last for a couple of hours. These effects are mild euphoria and a sense of well being with increased arousal and alertness.
There is associated increased heart rate and even palpitations, elevated blood pressure and sweating and flushing. It is reported to decrease hunger and nausea and also diarrhoea.
Long term usage can cause a tremor and a psychosis and usage is associated with an increase risk of oropharyngeal cancers. There is some pretty dramatic effects with red lips and gums and most seemed to have pretty terrible gingival and dental disease.
There is lots I don't know about this topic. Anne and I tried a very small piece - apart from tasting fairly bitter it had no noticeable effect on either of us.
Some Pubmed abstracts:
search term : areca nut
abstract 17 Arecoline causes brain cell death by oxidative stress
abstract 41 Arecoline cause an increase in triglycerides and insulin resistance - ie leads to diabetes
search term : betel nut (there was a large number of abstracts for this search term -1400!)
abstract 10 Areca nut reduces the activity of a gene calles Ches1. This gene suppresses cell growth. This would partly explain the increase in mouth and throat cancers in betel nut users
abstract 19 Chewing Betel nut habitually was found to be diabetogenic (Taiwanese study)
search term : Areca nut drug dependency
abstract 16: 40% of betel nut users and 80% of betel nut + nicotine users can be classified as having a substance dependency. They would suffer withdrawal symptoms and would exhibit drug seeking behaviours.
Conclusion : an interesting social and cultural plant/drug that I was largely unaware of. It has some dramatic effects on the appearance of persons using it. Whilst I don't have a great depth of understanding of it, I suspect it is akin to nicotine but maybe less addictive. One wonders what our society would do if the use of this started to become popular -ban it outright or tolerate it and treat it as a health issue. Hopefully the latter.
Regarding Betel nut and diabetes - I found some old figures of prevalence of about 9% type 2 diabetes in a rural village (and another 5.7% with pre-diabetes) in PNG. Australia has a prevalence of nearly 14% ( actual and impaired glucose tolerance) I bet a large number of cases of diabetes in PNG remain undiagnosed and untreated with consequently reduced life expectancy. In PNG villages, diabetes could thus indeed be caused by Betel nut as the Australian causes would not apply ( high fat/carb diet , lack of exercise, obesity etc)
Regarding Betel nut and diabetes - I found some old figures of prevalence of about 9% type 2 diabetes in a rural village (and another 5.7% with pre-diabetes) in PNG. Australia has a prevalence of nearly 14% ( actual and impaired glucose tolerance) I bet a large number of cases of diabetes in PNG remain undiagnosed and untreated with consequently reduced life expectancy. In PNG villages, diabetes could thus indeed be caused by Betel nut as the Australian causes would not apply ( high fat/carb diet , lack of exercise, obesity etc)
Tom
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