Areca catechu L.

അടയ്ക്ക

Family : ARECACEAE/PALMAE

Synonym : Areca catechu var. alba Blume 

Common Names : Adakkamaram, Adakka, Chempalukka, Kavungu, Kazhangu, Pakku, Areca palm, Betel nut plam, Pinang

Flowering Period : Throughout the year

Distribution : Cultivated from India to the Solomon Islands and less commonly in Africa and Tropical America

Habitat : Cultivated

Uses : Fruits edible, tender leaves edible. Seed (nut) is aromatic and astringent, and can be addictive. It is used against anaemia, fits, leucoderma, leprosy, and obesity, and is also a purgative and an ointment for nasal ulcers. In India, the nut has been used to treat tapeworms. Chewing on the seeds (nuts) produces euphoria, heightened alertness, sweating, salivation, and an increased capacity to work, and alkaloid arecoline, which is found in the nut, accounts for these effects. Tannins, which are found in betel nut, were traditionally being used for dyeing clothes.

Key Characters :

Stem erect, hooped, unarmed. Leaves in a terminal crown, to 2 m long; leaflets many, linear or linear-lanceolate, base narrow, apex praemorse; lower ones plicate; upper ones coherent, nerves 2-5 or more, prominent. Spadices several on the axils of fallen leaves, to 50 cm long, branched, shortly peduncled; spikes flexuous or straight, to 30 cm long. Spathes boat-like, coriaceous. Flowers monoecious; lower ones female, 1-3 at spike-base; upper ones male, many. Male flowers: c. 3 mm long; sepals 3, c. 1 mm long, triangular; petals 3, c. 2.5 mm, ovate, white; stamens 6; pistillode 2-fid. Female flowers: c. 1.3 cm long; sepals c. 7 mm, obovate; petals to 1 cm; ovary to 8 mm, oblong, 1-celled, ovule solitary. Fruit to 4 x 2.5 cm, with fibrous mesocarps, orange-red in colour.