View source for Betel

{{SPlantbox
|familia=Piperaceae
|genus=Betel
|taxo_author=L.
|Temp Metric=°F
|jumpin=If this plant info box on watering; zones; height; etc. is mostly empty you can click on the edit tab and fill in the blanks!
|image=Piper betle plant.jpg
|image_width=240
|image_caption=A ''Piper betle'' plant
}}
The '''Betel''' (''Piper betle'') is a [[spice]] whose [[Leaf|leaves]] have medicinal properties. The plant is evergreen and [[Perennial plant|perennial]], with glossy heart-shaped leaves and white [[catkin]]s, 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 &quot;Magahi&quot; 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 language|Tamil]]).

{{Inc|
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.
}}