ARECA NUT

ARECA NUT

It is not a true nut.

Consumption has many harmful effects on health and is carcinogenic to humans. Various compounds present in the nut, including arecoline.

India (the largest consumer of areca nut) and Pakistan, the preparation of nut with or without betel leaf is commonly referred to as paan. It is available practically everywhere and is sold in ready-to-chew pouches called pan masala or supari, as a mixture of many flavours whose primary base is areca nut crushed into small pieces. Poor people, who may eat only every other day, use it to stave off hunger pangs. Pan masala with a small quantity of tobacco is called gutka. The easily discarded, small plastic supari or gutka  pouches are an ubiquitous pollutant of the South Asian environment. Some of the liquid in the mouth is usually disposed of by spitting, producing bright red spots wherever the expectorate lands.