A study was undertaken by our team in NITK Surathkal in 2021 and 2022 to study the arecoline content in the unripe areca nuts of 6-7 months’ maturity. The areca nut samples were collected from various locations as explained in my Blog 4. Phenolic compounds present in Areca nut (Karnataka, India): Part – II (under the label Chemical constituents of Areca nut). The arecoline content of the fresh areca nut samples was determined immediately after the collection. Very sensitive HPLC method was employed to find the arecoline content in the samples. The results are presented below.
The median
arecoline content among the 21 samples was 2.17 mg/g on Fresh weight (FW) basis.
Sample from K. Hosur, Tarikere Taluk, Chickmagalur District had the highest
arecoline content of 3.66 mg/g (0.366 %) on fresh weight basis. Whereas the sample from
Gajanur, Shivamogga district had the lowest arecoline content of 0.71 mg/g (0.071%) on fresh weight basis.
In general, the arecoline content of all the samples analyzed in this study was on the lower side compared to the reports published elsewhere. Only three samples had the arecoline content more than 0.3 % out of 21 samples analyzed. In general, if areca nut is having 0.3% arecoline content (3.0 mg/g) is dried as it is, the dried nut would contain 0.75 % (7.5 mg/g) arecoline on dry weight basis. Interestingly, two samples had arecoline content less than 0.1%, which is a remarkable discovery.
