ABECA ARECOLINE 611 



ARECA-ARECOLINE 



ARECJE SEMINA. The seed of Areca catechu. Betel-Nut. 

 Nat. Ord. Palmacae. (Not official.) 



The catechu or betel-nut palm is a straight, slender tree, 

 forty or fifty feet high, growing on the Coromandel and 

 Malabar coasts, and throughout the warmer parts of Asia. 

 Within a fibrous fruit lies the hard, ovoid, red-brown seed, 

 of the size and appearance of a nutmeg. When ground, the 

 powder is brown, astringent, and partially soluble in hot 

 water and spirit. It contains besides tannin, the alkaloids, 

 arecoline, arecaine, arecaidine, and guvacine. Arecoline 

 (C 8 H 13 N0 2 ), the chief alkaloid, is strongly alkaline, liquid, 

 colourless, and volatile, soluble in water, alcohol, ether, and 

 chloroform. With acids it forms salts, of which the most 

 important is the hydrobromide. 



ACTIONS AND USES. Arecoline is a powerful sialogogue, 

 diaphoretic, intestinal stimulant and vermifuge. In physio- 

 logical actions it is allied to eserine, pilocarpine, and pelle- 

 tierine. Like eserine it contracts the pupil and stimulates 

 peristalsis. Exerting more energy than pilocarpine it 

 stimulates the secretory nerves of glands, and under its 

 influence the salivary, skin, and intestinal secretions are 

 much increased. It stimulates unstriped muscle and pro- 

 motes the discharge of urine. Large doses act on striated 

 muscle, causing twitching and spasm, followed by partial 

 paralysis. Medicinal doses diminish the force and number 

 of the pulsations, and excessive doses paralyse the heart. 

 In horses respiration is increased by small doses, while large 

 and repeated doses lessen the activity of the respiratory 

 nervous centre inducing dyspnoea and suffocation. Areco- 

 line has been used with excellent results in the treatment of 

 acute laminitis and colic in horses and of constipation in 

 cattle. Its value as a remedy for laminitis first ascer- 

 tained by Frohner has been well attested by Schumacher, 

 Paimans, Gobbels, and others. Schumacher asserts that it 

 shortens the duration of the disease. In colic and foecal 

 impaction it is almost as powerful as eserine, and stronger 

 and more rapid than pilocarpine though not so lasting in its 



