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According to The Encyclopedia Americana International Edition: Betel Nut: the seed of the betel palm (Areca catechu), which is chewed as a stimulant throughout southern Asia. The betel nut is about 2 inches (5cm) long and is mottled brown and gray in color. The ripened seeds are gathered between August and November, boiled in water, cut into slices, and dried in the sun, giving them a dark brown or reddish color. Each dried nut is then wrapped, together with a piece of shell lime, in a leaf of the betel pepper (Piper betle) and chewed. Betel nuts contain the alkaloid arecoline, a mild stimulant that produces a feeling of wellbeing. They are not habit-forming, but habitual chewing of betel nuts eventually blackens the teeth and may cause them to decay. In some parts of the Orient, betel nuts are used to destroy intestinal worms. Elsewhere, they are used as a dewormer in veterinary medicine. According to The New Encyclopadia Britannica: Betel, also called Areca Nut, Pinang, or Penang, either of two different plants whose fruit is used in combination for chewing, or masticatory, purposes throughout wide areas of southern Asia and the East Indies. Betel chewing is a habit of an estimated one-tenth of the world’s population. The betel nut is the seed of the areca, or betel palm (Areca catechu), family Palmae, and the betel leaf is form the betel pepper, or pan plant (Piper betle), family Piperaceae. The areca palm, cultivated in India, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Malaysia, and the Philippines, has a slender, unbranched trunk reaching 12 to 15 meters (40 or 50 feet) high and about 45 centimeters (18 inches) in circumference and is topped by a crown of six to nine very large, spreading, pinnate fronds. The fruit is about the size of a small hen’s egg. Within its fibrous rind is the seed, or nut, the albumen of which is hard and has a mottled gray and brown appearance. The fruits of the areca palm, gathered between August and November, before they are quite ripe, are husked, boiled in water, cut into slices, and dried in the sun, becoming dark brown or black. For chewing, a small piece of the areca palm’s fruit is wrapped in a leaf of the betel pepper, along with a pellet of shell lie or chunam to cause salivation and release the stimulating alkaloids. In some cases cardamom, turmeric, or another aromatic is added for flavour and stimulation. Chewing results in a copious flow of brick-red saliva, which may temporarily dye the mouth, lips, and gums orange brown. Contrary to general belief, the teeth of habitual chewers are not blackened by the betel juice, but chewers often artificially stain the teeth black. Betel nuts are a source of inferior catechu (q.v.); its chief alkaloid is arecoline, a drug used by veterinarians as a worming agent.