Betel nut is a plant whose fruit can be made into a chewy food.
Betel nut, is a monocotyledonous, primocane, palm family, betel nut genus of evergreen trees, stems erect, tree-like, more than 10 meters high, up to 30 meters, with obvious ring-like leaf scars, monoecious, inflorescences multi-branched, the ovary is oblong, the fruit is oblong or ovoid, the seeds are ovoid, flowering and fruiting period of March-April.
Betel nut is an important traditional Chinese medicine, in the south of some ethnic minorities there will be the fruit as a chewing hobby, but it is the World Health Organization International Agency for Research on Cancer carcinogen list of carcinogens category 1 carcinogens.
Betel nut is native to Malaysia, betel nut is mainly distributed in Southeast Asia, tropical Asia, East Africa and parts of Europe, the Pacific region is mainly distributed in Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Fiji, Vanuatu and Micronesia, sporadic distribution in Pi?apai, the U.S. Mariana Islands and the Marshall Islands, the Hawaiian Islands betel nut planting is used only as an ornamental.
China is mainly distributed in Yunnan, Hainan and Taiwan and other tropical areas. Widely cultivated in tropical Asia. Belongs to the warm, wet and hot type of positive plants, like high temperature, abundant rainfall and humid climate environment. Commonly scattered in low valleys, the foot of the ridge, the foot of the slope and the plains of the secondary forest of tropical monsoon rainforest by the streams, but also in the humus-rich gullies, mountain cans, sparse forests, and slightly acidic to neutral sandy loamy barren hills and wilderness.
Extended information:
.Harms of eating betel nut:
1, betel nut contains carcinogenic alkaloids, leading to oral cancer, and many people are currently suffering from oral cancer because of betel nut.
2, long-term eating and chewing betel nut will make people's teeth black.
3, due to the lime and betel nut juice filled with the oral cavity to form dental calculus, and due to long-term chewing and chewing the teeth, and even make the teeth cracked or broken.
4, due to chewing betel nut and cause oral submucosal fibrosis and leukoplakia, the clinical symptoms of which are difficulty in opening the mouth, pain, numbness, whitening of the oral mucosa and ulcers.
5, betel nut eat more on the digestive system is a great impact, this is because the betel nut juice scale pollution black lip edge of the teeth and cheeks, affecting the outlook, and damage to the gustatory nerve and salivary secretion, hindering the digestive function, betel nut residue stimulation of the stomach wall, leading to gastric mucosa inflammation or even perforation, affecting nutrient absorption, resulting in malnutrition. Especially children eating betel nut can easily lead to malnutrition.
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