Nutritional Value Of Areca Nut

In some ethnic minorities in southern China, the fruit is also used as a chewing craving.  Areca nut contains a variety of nutrients and beneficial substances needed by the human body. Areca nut also contains more than 20 trace elements, of which 11 are essential trace elements for the human body. Areca nut seeds contain 0.3%-0.6% total alkaloids, mainly arecoline, and also contain small amounts of arecoline, demethylarecoline, isodemethylarecoline, arecoline paraalkaloid and homoarecoline, all of which are present in combination with tannic acid. There are also tannins, fats, mannitol, galactose, sucrose, catechin, epidicatechin, colorless anthocyanins, areca red pigment, saponins and various procyanidin dimers, trimers and tetramers. The fatty acid composition is as follows: lauric acid 19.5%, myristic acid 46.2%, palmitic acid 12.7%, stearic acid 1.6%, oleic acid 6.2%, linoleic acid 5.4%, dodecanoic acid 0.3%, and tetradecenoic acid 7.2%; it contains amino acids, of which proline accounts for more than 15%.