What is betel nut?

Areca catechu is a plant, and its fruit can be made into chewing food.

Areca catechu is an evergreen tree of monocotyledonous plant class, primordium, Palmae and Areca. Its stem is erect and tree-shaped, and its height exceeds 10 meter, and the highest can reach 30 meters. There are obvious annular leaf scars, monoecious, and the inflorescence is multi-branched. The ovary is oblong, the fruit is oblong or ovoid, the seeds are ovoid, and the flowering and fruiting period is from March to April.

Areca catechu is an important Chinese herbal medicine. Some ethnic minorities in the south still use it as a chewing hobby, but it is a carcinogen in the list of carcinogens of the International Agency for Research on Cancer 1 of the World Health Organization.

Areca catechu originated in Malaysia, mainly distributed in Southeast Asia, tropical Asia, East Africa and parts of Europe. Mainly distributed in Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Fiji, Vanuatu and Micronesia in the Pacific Ocean, with sporadic distribution in Pinape Island, American Mariana Islands and Marshall Islands. Betel nuts in Hawaii are grown just for viewing.

China is mainly distributed in tropical areas such as Yunnan, Hainan and Taiwan Province Province. Widely cultivated in tropical Asia. It is a warm and humid positive plant, and likes high temperature, abundant rainfall and humid climate. They are usually distributed in low mountain valleys, under ridges, under hillsides and secondary forests in tropical monsoon forest near Pingyuan Creek, and also grow in valleys, hills, sparse forests and barren hills with slightly acidic to neutral sandy loam.

Extended data:

The harm of eat areca;

1, betel nut contains carcinogenic alkaloids, which leads to oral cancer. Nowadays, many people suffer from oral cancer because of betel nut.

2, chewing betel nut for a long time will make people's teeth black.

3, because calcium and betel nut juice fill the mouth to form dental calculus, and because of long-term hard chewing, dentin is consumed, and even teeth are cracked or broken.

4. Oral submucosal fibrosis and leukoplakia caused by chewing betel nut, and its clinical symptoms are difficulty in opening mouth, pain, numbness, whitening of oral mucosa and ulcer.

Eating too much betel nut has a great influence on the digestive system. This is because the betel nut juice scale pollutes the black lips, teeth and cheeks, which affects the appearance, damages the taste nerve and saliva secretion, and hinders the digestive function. The betel nut residue stimulates the stomach wall, leading to inflammation and even perforation of the gastric mucosa, affecting nutrient absorption and causing malnutrition. Especially the child eat areca can easily lead to malnutrition.

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