Risk of Betel Nut Chewing: Chemical and Toxicological Studies

Last few decades epidemiological reports warn that the development of oral submucous fibrosis − a precancerous state, is universal among betel nut or areca nut users. Betel nut contains arecoline and other microelements which are released into the buccal cavity during the process of areca nut chewing. The present effort was undertaken to find out the correlations between chemical ingredients, like arecoline, magnesium, iron and copper present in betel nut with toxicological incidences in experimental animals. Arecoline was estimated by HPLC (Perkin Elmer, USA) and other micronutrients like magnesium, iron and copper was assessed by AAS (Perkin Elmer, USA). Repeated dose 90-day sub-acute oral toxicity of betel nut water extract (BNE) at the dose of 0.5X10-2 ml/g/day and 1.0X10-2 ml/g/day was performed on Wistar rats as per the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) guidelines No. 408. The result indicates that betel nut contains Group 1 human carcinogen arecoline with significant high level of magnesium, iron and copper. Moreover, consumption of betel nut induces liver damage in rats by indicating significant enhancement of serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alkaline phosphatase (ALP). It may conclude that chemical ingredients presences in betel nut are harmful for health and it should be restricted.