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Regarding betel terminology: it is misleading to say that betel is "chewed;" more properly, it is sucked. Like chewing tobacco, betel is inserted "between the cheek and gum" and left there to soak, sometimes for hours. Furthermore, the generic term "betel nut" is technically a misnomer. What betel chewers put in their mouths is primarily areca nut, sometimes wrapped in betel leaf, with mineral lime usually added as a catalyst. These three ingredients are often supplemented by additions of spices, candy, or tobacco, but don't be deceived by cosmetics: it's the nut-leaf-lime mixture that delivers the magic.

Areca nut is the seed of the tall, slender areca palm (areca catechu), native to the fringes of the Indian and west Pacific Oceans. With its husk off, the nut is a little smaller than a walnut. It is solid throughout, has a marbleized grain, and is as hard as a knot in a pine board. Its active principle is the alkaloid arecoline. In pharmacological terms, arecoline stimulates the parasympathetic nervous system, resulting in a contraction of the pupils and an increased secretion of tears and saliva. (The latter is especially encouraged by areca, as is evident from this description of an early 20th-century experiment in which a horse was injected with pure arecoline: "...the saliva gushes forth from the animal's mouth in a solid stream." [Erich Hesse, Narcotics and Drug Addiction])

The areca's sister in crime, betel leaf, comes from a tree-climbing vine (piper betle) of the pepper family. The shiny green leaf is heart-shaped, and about the size of the palm of your hand. Its essential oil contains a phenol (betel-phenol) similar to the aromatic eugenol found in the oil of cloves. Betel-phenol probably contributes stimulant properties of its own, but scant information is available on its pharmacology.

Like the coca-chewers of the Andes, betel users somehow discovered that the addition of lime helps to extract the vital essence of the plants into the saliva (and from there, of course, through the mucous membranes of the mouth and straight into the bloodstream). The catalytic lime is either powder (calcium oxide) or paste (calcium hydroxide). In either case, it is typically made from kiln-baked seashells.

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"I'm writing this in the midst of my first ever betel experience. Today I went to pick up a package from my friend's house containing, amongst other things, 25mL of a 5X betel nut extract, ordered from an online supplier. I was waiting to catch the bus home when impatience overcame me, and I dropped 0.5mL of the liquid (equivalent to 2.5g of nuts, by my calculation) under my tongue."

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