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Ethnobotanicals Areca nut / Betel nut

Gaz_hmmmm

Gaz_hmmmm

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Joined
Nov 27, 2002
Messages
4,088
Location
England, UK
I'm wanting to know about betel (Prounced like beetle.) nut aka areca nut, not paan or betel quid which is in fact betel nut (Areca nut) wrapped in a betel leaf.
Betel leafs comes from Piper betel, a vine which is related to pepper and kava and is not the same plant from which areca nut (Betel nut) comes from.
Yes, it can be confusing.

My question is how can I make it softer when chewing it or is that why slaked lime (chuna) paste is added to paan?
Cause all though it's referred to as a nut, it's more like hard wood texture when chewing and can break teeth if not careful, it's that hard!

I'm guessing soaking in warm water may reduce the psychoactive chemicals in it?
 
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Yeah fuck man I had that same problem. I ordered some and it was hard as a rock and I didn't really know what to do with it. I never did figure it out.
 
When you say you ordered, how do you mean?
I just bought some in the pre cut flavoured (Sweet menthol or an awful perfumey similar flavour are the only 'local' (Pakistan, Indian and Sri Lankan) varieties sold here.) packets.
It says betel nut (Areca nut), sweetener, usually saccharine and/or sodium cyclamate) and menthol flavour on the packet. All the brands all have 'Supari' in the name, I'm guessing that's a South East Asian name for it.
You can suck it and chew it straight from them packets but Christ is it hard!
I've even tried using a pestle and mortar.
 
I couldnt find any source for the prepared version of betel nut. So I bought just areca nut since thats the psychoactive ingredient.. and it turned out to be extremely dry and hard .

Does that mean its not as fresh as was advertised? I thought that might be the case. Grain of salt though, I dont have any real experience with this.

Always wanted to try betel. Same with khat leaf. Two things still hard to get even with the dark net around.
 
So if interpreted right there is a commercial version. In which the Areca nut is blended in till a fine powder.

The ones that are on display with Pakistani shop's.

But you are referring to the raw nut? I actually liked the powder, redish of colour spicy in taste. And actually the closest thing to a Nicotin high I encountered.

Always going for it , in Paris I bought fresh Cola nuts. They worked but were kinda astringent.
 
I ordered some once years ago and found the same. Never quite got an effect I couldn't explain away as placebo from it. I figured that maybe in places where it grows and is a commonly used drug, the fresh nut is used, or something? Maybe it's softer? I can't really see how the rock-hard dried nut can really be effectively used. But perhaps there is a method, maybe you have to soften it up somehow, or grind it?

In any case I tried using it a handful of times and tossed the rest because it seemed worthless. Haven't ever tried since.
 
Gaz_hmmmm said:
I'm wanting to know about betel (Prounced like beetle.) nut aka areca nut, not paan or betel quid which is in fact betel nut (Areca nut) wrapped in a betel leaf.
Betel leafs comes from Piper betel, a vine which is related to pepper and kava and is not the same plant from which areca nut (Betel nut) comes from.
Yes, it can be confusing.

My question is how can I make it softer when chewing it or is that why slaked lime (chuna) paste is added to paan?
Cause all though it's referred to as a nut, it's more like hard wood texture when chewing and can break teeth if not careful, it's that hard!

I'm guessing soaking in warm water may reduce the psychoactive chemicals in it?
Click to expand...
Soak it in water should soften it never had it on its own sometimes take it with what we call tamacu which is tobacco add some chuna to it is that what the white paste is i thought the white paste is beetle nut its popular in punjab but that wghite stuff rips gums up but gives a lift
 
I never felt betel nut until my cousin and I found a panwalla (not sure that is the word but that is what we called him). We would call it pan, but I understand that pan just the leaf and supari is the betel nut. But this guy would make us a nice tasty quid and we would walk around the Village in NYC as it took effect. Seemed a lot like nicotine. But there was an undoubtedly fairly strong effect of stimulation, dizziness, and alertness. At least as strong as someone who takes a big hit of tobacco when not a smoker and gets dizzy.

Then I would order my own betel and piper leaf and made my own successfully. Then I got bored of it within a few months.

Not sure anyone remembers an herbal outfit that sold a legal smoke blend called Zen2 back in 2007-2008. It was potent, reminded me of crack. Very addicting and jaw grinding stimulating. Anyway it was said that it contained arecoline and that gave it it's unusually strong effect. Looking back I now think that was not true and contained one of the synthetic cathenones that were to become available shortly after. It was very cocaine like.
 
The stuff I got is in little packets, it's like diced nuts, not a powder but hard like wood. I've broken my teeth twice on it.
Still not found a way to soften it and I don't fancy using the chuna/lime (calcium hydroxide) paste though I think I will at least give it a go once.

Arecoline is a parasympathetic nervous system stimulant and the lime hydrolyses it in to arecaidine which is a GABA reuptake inhibitor.
So it'd stimulate the parasympathetic nervous system but calm the sympathetic nervous system.
 
Xorkoth said:
the fresh nut is used
Click to expand...
This is confirmed. Just asked SO about this and she said that they remove the outer "skin" (is what she said) and chew on the the remains. The rind is kinda like a walnut as ya gotta remove that outer part but there is nothing to "crack" to get what is wanted.
She is going to pick some up from the chinese store next time she goes. Gotta try it. She has talked about it many times in our history. Her people used it but she never tried it. Straight-edge. lol
 
JackARoe said:
I never felt betel nut until my cousin and I found a panwalla (not sure that is the word but that is what we called him). We would call it pan, but I understand that pan just the leaf and supari is the betel nut. But this guy would make us a nice tasty quid and we would walk around the Village in NYC as it took effect. Seemed a lot like nicotine. But there was an undoubtedly fairly strong effect of stimulation, dizziness, and alertness. At least as strong as someone who takes a big hit of tobacco when not a smoker and gets dizzy.

Then I would order my own betel and piper leaf and made my own successfully. Then I got bored of it within a few months.

Not sure anyone remembers an herbal outfit that sold a legal smoke blend called Zen2 back in 2007-2008. It was potent, reminded me of crack. Very addicting and jaw grinding stimulating. Anyway it was said that it contained arecoline and that gave it it's unusually strong effect. Looking back I now think that was not true and contained one of the synthetic cathenones that were to become available shortly after. It was very cocaine like.
Click to expand...

There is an arecoline cocaine analog that is very potent and very possibly could’ve been the culprit too. Not sure on its legality but a competent chemist definitely could pull it off and easy to just say “arecoline” instead.

Your probably right though it’s likely a cathinone.

-GC
 
6am-64-14m said:
This is confirmed. Just asked SO about this and she said that they remove the outer "skin" (is what she said) and chew on the the remains. The rind is kinda like a walnut as ya gotta remove that outer part but there is nothing to "crack" to get what is wanted.
She is going to pick some up from the chinese store next time she goes. Gotta try it. She has talked about it many times in our history. Her people used it but she never tried it. Straight-edge. lol
Click to expand...

Where's your SO from?
I didn't know it was used in China.
G_Chem said:
There is an arecoline cocaine analog that is very potent and very possibly could’ve been the culprit too. Not sure on its legality but a competent chemist definitely could pull it off and easy to just say “arecoline” instead.

Your probably right though it’s likely a cathinone.

-GC
Click to expand...

Any idea what it's called?

Do you mean an analog like Fenethylline (Amphetamine bonded to caffeine analog theophylline, sold under the brand name's Captagon, Biocapton and Fitton.) or an individual chemical that is very similar in structure to arecoline?
 
Just read the ingredient's of one of these commercial powdered blends. It has as main ingredient, the Areca nut ( immature nuts that go through a whole proces ending with fermentation)

The second ingredient was the leaf of Piper Beetle you mentioned. And the third, that came as an surprise, Tobacco. The list goes on Btw.

But in your case I would recommend a pestal and morter. And try that before you destroy your Coffee grinder. Good luck and report back I wonder how pure Areca is.
 
Gaz_hmmmm said:
Where's your SO from?
I didn't know it was used in China.


Any idea what it's called?

Do you mean an analog like Fenethylline (Amphetamine bonded to caffeine analog theophylline, sold under the brand name's Captagon, Biocapton and Fitton.) or an individual chemical that is very similar in structure to arecoline?
Click to expand...

An individual chemical, a synthetic analog that was designed to look for a replacement drug for cocaine. They instead found analogs with 30+x the potency. I won’t discuss the chemistry but a link below explains more about this drug.


-GC
 
Gaz_hmmmm said:
Where's your SO from?
Click to expand...
Thailand.
Nah, she just calls it the chinese store. To be more PC it would be an asian store I guess. I never know the proper names of the markets we visit they all "chinese stores". lol
I dont know if the chinese mess with it or not, tbh.
peace
 
G_Chem said:
There is an arecoline cocaine analog that is very potent and very possibly could’ve been the culprit too. Not sure on its legality but a competent chemist definitely could pull it off and easy to just say “arecoline” instead.
Click to expand...
That is what the dude that owned the shop and made the specialty blends said. He showed me a paper on an arecoline analog that existed in the nut in small quatities that was similar to cocaine. It could have been legit. But only the first two batches were good. There were subsequent batches that did nothing. One hit and I was pacing jaw grinding and all I could think about was another hit. It would take me all day to go through 2 grams but it was like crack. I would use poppy tea on the come down. I never smoked crack either but I know that cocaine type feeling. Oddy enough I never smoke cocaine. I have snorted and shot it but never imbibed by smoking.
 
yubacity said:
Soak it in water should soften it never had it on its own sometimes take it with what we call tamacu which is tobacco add some chuna to it is that what the white paste is i thought the white paste is beetle nut its popular in punjab but that wghite stuff rips gums up but gives a lift
Click to expand...
My Tamil friend has betel nut but it is called paaan. I did not chew it because it stains your teeth and it can apparently cause mouth cancer? They keep it in the refrigerator. I saw people chewing it at my friend's wedding after dinner but I thought it was a banana leaf filled with candy fennel seeds and I did not want to chew on it.
 
Yeah the nuts are always gonna be hard and woodlike. In places like India where pan masala is very common people really FUBAR their teeth chewing that shit.

I've tried plain nuts from a vietnamese store and I definitely prefer flavored pan masala with lime. I Pan Parag brand pouches, The Indian store here in town has it.
 
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