Betel quid is a popular masticatory in Taiwan. Fresh unripe areca fruit, the fruit of Areca catechu Linn., is the main ingredient of betel quid. In this study, the information on the measurements of phenolics and alkaloids in A. catechu Linn. was obtained. The phenolics in A. catechu Linn. were mainly distributed in root followed by fresh unripe fruit, leaf, spike, and vein, while the contents of alkaloids in A. catechu Linn. were in the order of root, fresh unripe fruit, spike, leaf, and vein. Total amounts of phenolics in areca fruit were well correlated with the length and maturation, but those of alkaloids were only correlated with the maturation. Upside-down areca fruit, areca fruit growing upward (opposite to normal fruits, growing downward), contained a much higher amount of arecaidine (4 mg/g of fresh wt) than normal fresh unripe areca fruit (1.5 mg/g of fresh wt). Tender shoot, the upper young stem of the tree, cooked as a delicious syrup, contained a small amount of total phenolics (0.58 mg of gallic acid equiv/g of fresh wt), condensed tannin (0.85 mg of catechin equiv/g of fresh wt), and total alkaloids (2.38 mg/g of fresh wt). Keywords: Areca catechu Linn.; phenolics; alkaloids; areca fruit; maturation; upside-down areca fruit; tender shoot

Fresh unripe areca fruit is the main ingredient of betel quid in Taiwan. The phenolics in whole fresh areca fruit involved condensed tannins (92 mg/g of dry wt), hydrolyzable tannins (69 mg/g of dry wt), non-tannin flavans (84 mg/g of dry wt) and simple phenolics (56 mg/g of dry wt). For liquid chromatography, Sephadex LH-20 gels were used to separate the condensed tannin and noncondensed tannin phenol fractions from the crude phenolic extract of areca fruit. The condensed tannin phenol fraction was rich in condensed tannins and simple phenolics. The noncondensed tannin phenol fraction contained abundant non-tannin flavans (catechin, epicatechin). The crude phenolic extract of areca fruit and its two separated fractions exhibited marked antioxidative activity and an antimutagenic effect on 2-amino-3-methylimidazo[4,5-f]quinoline toward Salmonella typhimurium TA98 and TA100, did not induce chromosomal aberration, and increased the frequency of sister chromatid exchange (SCE) in CHO-K1 cells. Keywords: Phenolics; areca fruit; antioxidative activity; antimutagenicity; SCE

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