What Is the “Areca” in “Areca Nuts”? Extraction and Neuroactive Bioassay of Arecoline

Abstract

A series of three practical sessions are designed to give students firsthand experience with the preparation of natural product extracts and assay using a live tissue preparation. Areca or betel nuts are the seeds from the fruit of the Areca catechu palm tree that is known to contain a number of pharmacologically active alkaloids. The principal of these is arecoline that makes up to 1% of the dry nut. Arecoline is a potent spasmogenic agent, causing smooth muscle contraction via muscarinic acetylcholine receptor (mAChR) activation. The first session involves the preparation of methanolic extracts from whole areca nuts and TLC for the qualitative identification of arecoline present in the extract. The second session utilizes the spasmodic effects of arecoline on smooth muscle to allow students to perform a live tissue bioassay using guinea-pig ileum. This response is subsequently blocked by the mAChR antagonist atropine to investigate the mechanism underlying the measured response. The final session gives students the opportunity to construct arecoline dose–response curves based on their experimentally derived data. From this curve and the obtained antagonist results, they are able to calculate an estimate of the arecoline content in the extracts they prepared and the original betel nut samples.

Isolation of biologically active compounds from mangrove sediments

“…Similar to work presented here, extraction procedures involved the utilization of various organic solvents [28][29][30]. The range of chromatographic techniques varied from simple paper chromatography [31] and TLC [30,[32][33][34], with the latter noting, "the students recognize that TLC does not have the resolving power necessary to separate the extracted compounds and are guided towards a more powerful alternative, HPLC" [35]. HPLC is widely used in undergraduate teaching environments [35][36][37][38], so the utilization of HPLC in this paper is an obvious choice given the complexity of the extract.…”

Evaluating Feedstocks, Processes, and Products in the Teaching Laboratory: A Framework for Students To Use Metrics to Design Greener Chemistry Experiments

“…As a means for introducing students to aspects of toxicology and the potential harm of our various chemical products, several bioassays have been developed as laboratory exercises: brine shrimp for household chemicals or benzodiazepine derivatives; guinea pig ilium for a dose–response curve of arecoline; inhibition of bacteria cultures with various organic chemicals and metals; and Daphnea to monitor the effect of common household chemicals …”

Fuzhuan brick tea supplemented with areca nuts: Effects on serum and gut microbiota in mice

“…Areca nuts have various pharmacological effects, including anthelmintic, antioxidative, anti-inflammatory, antiaging, hypoglycemic, hypolipidemic, hypotensive, antidepressant, and antimicrobial activities, and ease food stagnation and eliminate indigestion (Kim et al, 2018;Locock et al, 2016;Peng et al, 2015;. Areca nuts can maintain healthy fat metabolism, prevent the conversion of carbohydrates into fat, reduce excess fat accumulation and overweight, and inhibit the formation of fat droplets in fat cells to restrain obesity symptoms (Chiang et al, 2004;Hsieh et al, 2011).…”