When it comes to psychoactive substances, the big three—caffeine, alcohol, and nicotine—are well-known. The fourth, however, might be a bit unfamiliar to you: the betel nut. Also called the areca nut, it comes from a species of palm tree (Areca catechu) common in Southeast Asia, and chewing on the seeds or leaves produces a mildly euphoric and stimulating effect. Around 10 percent of people globally use some form of betel. Now according to a new paper published in Science Advances, it may just be the oldest recreational drug known to man.
The investigation into this mind-bending substance began with a couple sets of groovy teeth. Archaeologist Adam Brumm of Australia’s Griffith University discovered teeth belonging to two prehistoric hunter-gatherers (who lived 25,000 and 7,000 years ago) with distinct and deep grooves—some all the way through the enamel.
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While Brumm suspected the damage might be the result of habitual betel nut use (the teeth tested positive for some betel compounds), modern betel nut chewing involves mixing slices of the interior nut meat with slaked lime (calcium carbonate) to facilitate the stimulating effects. Could using the whole nut like a lozenge produce the same effects?
To find out, Brumm and an international team of researchers soaked the nuts in artificial saliva overnight. Tests of the resulting extract revealed it contained some but not all of the psychoactive compounds. The team then used the extract to treat frog eggs genetically modified to express human brain cell receptors. The betel juice caused the receptors to activate—a clear sign it could produce a mild psychoactive effect.
Taken together, the psychoactive chemicals and the dental damage tell a familiar story of chemical dependence, the researchers say. It’s possible that these two hunter-gatherers started sucking the betel seeds recreationally. As they became more addicted, the nuts caused more damage, and they may have relied on their mild narcotic effects to soothe the pain, trapping them in an unforgiving cycle.
“It thus seems probable that managing the effects of addiction and other adverse health consequences of drug use was a part of human experience long before the oldest of our most common psychoactive substances, such as alcohol, had emerged,” the researchers wrote.
It’s a tale as old as time.
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Lead Image: Fakhri
