Medicinal Uses
Apart from its value as a masticatory agent, Arecanut has considerable uses in medicine as well. Actually it enters as a pharmaceutical drug in Indian and British pharmacopoeias. Paan chewing with betel nut is popularly believed to prevent tooth decay.
Ayurveda regards Arecanut as an aid to digestion. Alkaline in taste, it destroys pitta and kapha , is simulative, confers a flavour to the mouth and also cleanses it; it is also a laxative. An excellent worm expeller can be prepared by rubbing one-fourth tola of the betel nut powder into a paste with two tolas of fresh lemon juice. It is often given more usefully in the form of scrapings rather than the powder. This is administered in a dose of a teaspoonful after the patient has fasted for 12 to 14 hours, either made in the form of a bolus with ghee or more preferably as a float on milk. The action is generally noticed within an hour of administration and the procedure is found to be effective in cases of both the round and the tapeworms.
Betel nut is considered a digestive agent and a diuretic, a strengthener of the heart and a regulator of menstrual flow. It is used in overcoming swelling eyes, mental confusions, chronic urinary distress and pus formations.
