Talk:Betel

The lime acts to keep the active ingredient in its freebase or alkaline form, thus enabling it to enter the bloodstream via sublingual absorption.

Freebases are not particularly water soluble. Active compounds are usually taken orally / rectally / nasally / intravenously as the salt due to salts having a high water solubility and the body being primarily water based - e.g. look at the back of any pack of medicine and it'll say ... hydrochloride or ... sulphate or ... phosphate etc.

People only freebase things like cocaine to smoke it because the boiling point of the salt is much higher than that of the freebase. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 31.52.251.187 (talk) 20:44, 27 May 2012 (UTC)

Untitled

Does Betel need a disambiguation? I always type it in looking for info on the Areca nut (betel nut). It seems betel refers to the chew or the nut as often as the leaf of P. betel.

Has betel plant really originated from Malaysia and then taken to India and Indonesia?

This needs to be verified.

TV 19:49, 2 December 2005 (UTC)

There is mention made of betel being used in Papua New Guinea by Don Watson in "Recollections of a Bleeding Heart" (ISBN 0091835178, page 631).

Bertko 07:41, 25 December 2005 (UTC)

Do you have a peer-reviewed reference for the information regarding the action of lime on the absorption of betel nut sublingually? Thanks

You take about 2-3g betel -not more! - in powder or small pieces of the nut together with 0,5g lime. --Fackel 00:23, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

"The best Betel leaf" is subjective. Best in what regard? --Dgerton 01:17, 19 June 2006 (UTC)

Betel is commonly used in Bhutan. It is mentioned often in "Beyond the Sky and the Earth: A Journey into Bhutan" (ISBN 1-57322-118-X, pp 114, 115) and its use is demonstrated in Travellers and Magicians (2003) the only film shot in Bhutan. --Dgerton 01:17, 19 June 2006 (UTC)

About the accuracy of statement 'originated from Malaysia', I searched in the internet and I found two website that informed:

1. In http://www.pnm.my/sirihpinang/sp-asal.htm (a Malaysian web):

'Ianya dikatakan berasal dari India, berdasarkan cerita-cerita sastera.'
'According to literature, this came from India.'

In the same website, in http://www.pnm.my/sirihpinang/sp-dongeng.htm, there is a folktale in Vietnam about the origin of betel plant.

2. In Indonesian health ministry's web: http://www.depkes.go.id/index.php?option=articles&task=viewarticle&artid=27&Itemid=3 :
'tanaman yang berasal dari India, Sri Lanka, dan Malaysia ini'
'this plant originated from India, Sri Lanka, and Malaysia'

So, I suggest either:
1. we add India, Sri Lanka, and Vietnam besides Malaysia as the place of origin;
2. change the origin of the plant to: 'South and South east Asia'; or
3. do not state the origin of the plant because we don't have a very accurate reference about the plant's origin.

Guswandhi (talk) 17:46, 29 December 2007 (UTC)

dangers

are there any dangers related to chewing betel leaves?

• Aside from the association with oral and esophageal squamous cell carcinoma, no. No dangers. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.239.133.107 (talk) 23:26, 11 September 2007 (UTC)

I have introduced Burma as one of the countries where Betel is widely consumed. When I was there, I was told that this reddish plant was Peper Betel. Am I right? Is it also Betel? Thanks in advance. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 83.54.195.20 (talk) 17:08, 5 June 2008 (UTC)

The part about the colonial Prejudice is not POV

Contempt can be ignored or made mild by Europeans, but from Asia we see this differently. In the citation it does say "The natives chew these nuts all day" and "and chewed by the natives. They stain the lips and teeth red and also the excrement, they are hot and acrid when chewed. " this is certainly not what someone from Indonesia would write about the leafe or the nut. Kampong people58.10.80.244 (talk) 06:05, 25 September 2008 (UTC)

See reply on Talk:Areca nut. It is not for Wikipedia to judge whether the source is contemptuous - that is both OR and POV. If you want to claim "Europeans are contemptuous", find a source saying that, not a source that you think *is* contemptuous. 67.158.66.240 (talk) 22:38, 25 September 2008 (UTC)

The section about colonial prejudice does not constitute an OR original research and also not a POV. The section is mostly a summary for what the rest of the article says. The remaining part of what the section says is not rocket science:

• 1.The colonizers did not take the habit, so they looked at it from afar.
• 2. Regarding the wrong use of the term betel, you only have to refer to the section below and the article on Betel where there is enough evidence about the difference between the term for the leaf and the term for the nut in the different laguages of the stuff's user countries. *3. Regarding the reverence and importance of the stuff (Vietnam, India, ...) there are referenced paragraphs in the remaining article.
• 4. Furthermore: since the nut represents the male priciple and the betel the female, in most user cultures the term "betel-nut" is not a happy combination because it puts the female part of the whole first.
• 5. If you look carefully at the pages preceding the cleanup of the article, when many repetitions were removed, you will realize that most of this section is a synthesis of what contributors from different countries in Asia had written. So please allow me to remove the unwarranted tag and greetings from Southeast Asia! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 125.27.16.206 (talk) 04:14, 24 October 2008 (UTC)

Original synthesis is exactly one of the things we don't do here. 67.158.72.135 (talk) 04:35, 10 May 2009 (UTC)

Merger proposal

It seems logical to me to merge Sirih leaves into this article as that article discusses the medicinal properties of Betel leaves, which is covered in a subsection of the Betel article. Davidelit (talk) 12:25, 30 April 2009 (UTC)

This article would not cover the whole of the other article, it doesn't seem logical to me. Dmcq (talk) 12:38, 30 April 2009 (UTC)

It should be merged. How could this article not cover the sirih leave article - the latter has only got 4 sentences? I don't get it. --Merbabu (talk) 12:43, 30 April 2009 (UTC)

Sorry yes I wsas getting a bit confused, the other article talked about them as if they were something other than Betel leaves. Dmcq (talk) 14:30, 30 April 2009 (UTC)

• Support - Sirih appears to be identical to Betel, and the former page is little more than a stub. --Scray (talk) 05:27, 1 June 2009 (UTC)
• I merged it, the relevant contents appear in the medicinal section. Rigadoun (talk) 04:26, 29 August 2009 (UTC)

Almost all Indonesian women use sirih leaves in bath water after giving birth as it shrinks the vaginal canal

I think this is an unsupported claim. I found some English references to this, but they didn't seem very reliable. I could not find any such Indonesian references. Especially the part "almost all women" seems very bad style to me, and is not verifiable. eco_mate (talk) 12:45, 11 July 2010 (UTC)

Pronunciation

Can someone please provide us with a correct pronunciation of "betel" in both English IPA and Pronunciation respelling key. Thanks. Dreammaker182 (talk) 17:23, 19 October 2010 (UTC)

I have found the following, but I'm unsure how to use this with Template:IPAc-en.

"betel". Oxford English Dictionary (Online ed.). Oxford University Press. (Subscription or participating institution membership required.)

Pronunciation: /ˈbiːt(ə)l/

Verbcatcher (talk) 00:37, 28 November 2015 (UTC)

first paragraph....

What kind of idiot suggest that betel leaves are "an addictive psycho-stimulating and euphoria-inducing formulation with adverse health effects". That happens only when its taken with tobacco. In fact betel leaves are helpful in digestion. Its the contents of the paan that decide if it is harmful or not. Don't spread your prejudices and correct that article. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 117.223.100.30 (talk) 09:19, 24 November 2012 (UTC)

Regarding the above paragraph, I noticed that there does not seem to be any discussion whatsoever of the health effects and benefits of, or the chemicals contained in, the betel leaf. I must say, regarding the above commentator's comment on "spreading prejudice," it is difficult for someone like me, who is not knowledgeable about betel leaf, to get anything but a negative impression from the article, despite the fact that the article does not state that betel leaf is harmful on its own. Does anyone have information on the uses of betel leaf alone, or on its uses other than in paan? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 199.107.200.70 (talk) 01:31, 5 June 2013 (UTC)

Confused

I have no stake in this game and am just learning about it. But from what I've read about the constituents, it sounds like most of the effects are from the nut, and that the leaves just provide eugenol and some similar substances to make it more palatable, rather than having any additictive / stimulative properties of their own. Is this correct? Then if so why is this whole article about the combination of the two? I came here wanted to learn about the plant itself (was curious about relatives of black pepper), not about all of the medical details of the combination with a totally unrelated palm nut, wherein said other species is the primary element of effect.

-- 213.176.153.100 (talk) 15:07, 6 September 2013 (UTC)

Etymology

The citations for the Etymology section are unsatisfactory. An unregistered user has recently changed the source language from Malayalam to Tamil, without changing the citations.

1. The first reference is to the Online Etymological Dictionary This is a self-published website and thereby not a reliable reference. This indicates the source as Malayalam.
2. The second reference is to a review of a 17th-century book on the flora of Malabar. I cannot find any mention of the derivation of Betel in this. Even if it did, a 17th-century book is not a reliable source for linguistics.
3. A third possible source is Wiktionary, which is linked to from our article, but not cited. This give a derivation from Tamil with a bare citation of the Oxford English Dictionary (no details of edition etc.) Wiktionary is not a reliable source for Wikipedia.

So we have no reliable source for this. I will leave the text showing Tamil with appropriate warnings for the cited sources. When someone has access to the full Oxford English Dictionary, or a to similar academically-rigorous source then please adjust the text as necessary and add a full citation. Verbcatcher (talk) 18:20, 19 November 2014 (UTC)

The Oxford English Dictionary (http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/18282? (password required)) has:

Etymology: Probably immed. < Portuguese betel (Varthema 1510), betele, formerly also vitele, betle, betre, < Malayalam vettila (in Tamil vettilei; compare Sanskrit vîti ‘betel’).

I interpret this as a derivation from the Malayalam language, via Portuguese. This is top-notch academic source: I will update the article, and delete the low-quality references for this.Verbcatcher (talk) 00:15, 28 November 2015 (UTC)

Major Edit removing Pan/Betel Nut chewing information

I have removed almost all the informatino to do with chewing of Paan/Areca Nut/Betel Nut (which all involve Betel Leaves but are not the same thing). This information is all contained on the page on areca nut so it does not need to be here. Additionally it is only tangential to the subject of the Betel leaf itself, which is interesting as a plant on its own and also has culinary uses (I would love it if someone has good sourced information on that, I've eaten it but don't know much about the use outside Australian haute cuisine). There are several links to the information about Areca nut and Paan chewing which (including the ironic mention several times that it should not be confused with the Betel nut, which the article was doing before this major change). As it stands the article could do with more information about the botany of the plant and information about its use in food, or other uses not involving tobacco or Areca nut. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 130.56.218.250 (talk) 00:06, 27 October 2016 (UTC)

To add to article

Basic information to add to this article: does it produce flowers and berries/fruits? 173.88.246.138 (talk) 23:31, 22 May 2021 (UTC)