Betel

Plant Characteristics

Cultivation

Scientific Names

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The Betel (Piper betle) is a spice whose leaves have medicinal properties. The plant is evergreen and perennial, with glossy heart-shaped leaves and white catkins, and grows to a height of about 1 metre. The Betel plant originated in Malaysia and now grows in India, Indonesia and Sri Lanka. The best Betel leaf is the "Magahi" variety (literally from the Magadha region) grown near Patna in Bihar, India. The plant is known by a series of different names in the regions in which it is consumed - among these are Vetrilai (Tamil).

Read about Betel in the Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture

Betel, or Betle. The leaf of Piper Betle, a kind of pepper used in wrapping the pellets of betel-nut and lime which are commonly chewed in the Orient. The pellets are hot, acrid, aromatic, astringent. They redden the saliva and blacken the teeth, and eventually corrode them. The betel-nut is the fruit of Areca catechu, a palm. The above text is from the Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture. It may be out of date, but still contains valuable and interesting information which can be incorporated into the remainder of the article. Click on "Collapse" in the header to hide this text.

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References

• Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture, by L. H. Bailey, MacMillan Co., 1963

External links

• w:Betel. Some of the material on this page may be from Wikipedia, under the Creative Commons license.
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