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Image| CAUTION! TOXIC if mishandled. Excess results in profuse salivation, sweating, vomiting, vertigo and stupor. Antidotes are atropine or epinephrine. The seeds posses a pigment that turns saliva red and blackens the teeth. |
Handsome tree of the Palm family with a single, slender stem, growing up to 25 meters and more. Male and female flowers appear on the same tree; male flowers are less numerous and located on the lower part of the flowering stalk. The fruits are conical, about 2 to 2½ inches long with a flattended base, orange to red in color with a soft and fibrous outer covering over a hard seed which is a mottled brown in color. The seed is mostly known as a narcotic used by certain natives. It is cut into narrow pieces and rolled up inside a betel (Piper betle) leaf, rubbed over with lime and chewed. Its origins are uncertain, but believed to have come from the Malay peninsula. Found growing throughout the Old World tropics.
PROPAGATION: By seed in spring sown at 75 to 81 degrees F.
MEDICINAL:
Astringent, stimulant, laxative, diuretic, acrid, bitter, mildy toxic; also relieves hunger and abdominal discomfort due to bloating and flatulence due to constipation.Kills intestinal parasites (tapeworms, round worms, pin worms, body flukes). Both the extract of the seed and the decoction show a 100% cure for pork tapeworm and a 94.1% cure in 120 cases of cestodiasis. In cases of Fasciolopsis buski, a single dose was effective for 54.7%, while 3 successive doses cured 98.4%. Formerly, 1 to 2 tsps (60 to 120 grains or 30 grams) of the powdered nut was taken for tapeworm; or 1 drachm of the Fluid Extract of Areca Nut which was followed by a purgative such as castor oil to produce a watery evacuation of the bowels.Has been used in Chinese medicine to destroy parasites and to treat dysenary; the ripe seeds have been used for malaria, diarrhea, indigestion, beriberi, canker, lumbago, dysuria, edema, to expel tapeworms and roundworms and to increase menstrual flow; the rind has been used as a diuretic in cases of edema.
VETERINARY:OTHER: