Areca nuts

Areca nuts, better known as betel nuts, are the seeds of the Areca catechu palm and are chewed widely across Asia, often wrapped in betel leaf (Piper betle) with slaked lime and spices. The nuts are harvested, husked, and sun-dried or cured before sale, and chewing releases the alkaloid arecoline, which produces a mild stimulant effect with increased salivation. Food-safety and public-health interest centres on risk rather than nutrition: habitual chewing is strongly linked to oral submucous fibrosis and oral cancers, and the World Health Organization classifies areca nut as carcinogenic. Regulators in several countries therefore restrict advertising and sale or require health warnings on these products.