Talk:Betel

Untitled

Does Betel need a disambiguation? I always type it in looking for info on the Areca nut (betel nut). It seems betel refers to the chew or the nut as often as the leaf of P. betel.

Has betel plant really originated from Malaysia and then taken to India and Indonesia?

This needs to be verified.

TV 19:49, 2 December 2005 (UTC)

There is mention made of betel being used in Papua New Guinea by Don Watson in "Recollections of a Bleeding Heart" (ISBN 0091835178, page 631).

Bertko 07:41, 25 December 2005 (UTC)

Do you have a peer-reviewed reference for the information regarding the action of lime on the absorption of betel nut sublingually? Thanks

You take about 2-3g betel -not more! - in powder or small pieces of the nut together with 0,5g lime. --Fackel 00:23, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

"The best Betel leaf" is subjective. Best in what regard? --Dgerton 01:17, 19 June 2006 (UTC)

Betel is commonly used in Bhutan. It is mentioned often in "Beyond the Sky and the Earth: A Journey into Bhutan" (ISBN 1-57322-118-X, pp 114, 115) and its use is demonstrated in Travellers and Magicians (2003) the only film shot in Bhutan. --Dgerton 01:17, 19 June 2006 (UTC)

About the accuracy of statement 'originated from Malaysia', I searched in the internet and I found two website that informed:

1. In http://www.pnm.my/sirihpinang/sp-asal.htm (a Malaysian web):

'Ianya dikatakan berasal dari India, berdasarkan cerita-cerita sastera.'
'According to literature, this came from India.'

In the same website, in http://www.pnm.my/sirihpinang/sp-dongeng.htm, there is a folktale in Vietnam about the origin of betel plant.

2. In Indonesian health ministry's web: http://www.depkes.go.id/index.php?option=articles&task=viewarticle&artid=27&Itemid=3 :
'tanaman yang berasal dari India, Sri Lanka, dan Malaysia ini'
'this plant originated from India, Sri Lanka, and Malaysia'

So, I suggest either:
1. we add India, Sri Lanka, and Vietnam besides Malaysia as the place of origin;
2. change the origin of the plant to: 'South and South east Asia'; or
3. do not state the origin of the plant because we don't have a very accurate reference about the plant's origin.

Guswandhi (talk) 17:46, 29 December 2007 (UTC)

dangers

are there any dangers related to chewing betel leaves?

• Aside from the association with oral and esophageal squamous cell carcinoma, no. No dangers. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.239.133.107 (talk) 23:26, 11 September 2007 (UTC)

I have introduced Burma as one of the countries where Betel is widely consumed. When I was there, I was told that this reddish plant was Peper Betel. Am I right? Is it also Betel? Thanks in advance. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 83.54.195.20 (talk) 17:08, 5 June 2008 (UTC)

The part about the colonial Prejudice is not POV

Contempt can be ignored or made mild by Europeans, but from Asia we see this differently. In the citation it does say "The natives chew these nuts all day" and "and chewed by the natives. They stain the lips and teeth red and also the excrement, they are hot and acrid when chewed. " this is certainly not what someone from Indonesia would write about the leafe or the nut. Kampong people58.10.80.244 (talk) 06:05, 25 September 2008 (UTC)

See reply on Talk:Areca nut. It is not for Wikipedia to judge whether the source is contemptuous - that is both OR and POV. If you want to claim "Europeans are contemptuous", find a source saying that, not a source that you think *is* contemptuous. 67.158.66.240 (talk) 22:38, 25 September 2008 (UTC)

The section about colonial prejudice does not constitute an OR original research and also not a POV. The section is mostly a summary for what the rest of the article says. The remaining part of what the section says is not rocket science:

• 1.The colonizers did not take the habit, so they looked at it from afar.
• 2. Regarding the wrong use of the term betel, you only have to refer to the section below and the article on Betel where there is enough evidence about the difference between the term for the leaf and the term for the nut in the different laguages of the stuff's user countries. *3. Regarding the reverence and importance of the stuff (Vietnam, India, ...) there are referenced paragraphs in the remaining article.
• 4. Furthermore: since the nut represents the male priciple and the betel the female, in most user cultures the term "betel-nut" is not a happy combination because it puts the female part of the whole first.
• 5. If you look carefully at the pages preceding the cleanup of the article, when many repetitions were removed, you will realize that most of this section is a synthesis of what contributors from different countries in Asia had written. So please allow me to remove the unwarranted tag and greetings from Southeast Asia! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 125.27.16.206 (talk) 04:14, 24 October 2008 (UTC)

Original synthesis is exactly one of the things we don't do here. 67.158.72.135 (talk) 04:35, 10 May 2009 (UTC)

Merger proposal

It seems logical to me to merge Sirih leaves into this article as that article discusses the medicinal properties of Betel leaves, which is covered in a subsection of the Betel article. Davidelit (talk) 12:25, 30 April 2009 (UTC)

This article would not cover the whole of the other article, it doesn't seem logical to me. Dmcq (talk) 12:38, 30 April 2009 (UTC)

It should be merged. How could this article not cover the sirih leave article - the latter has only got 4 sentences? I don't get it. --Merbabu (talk) 12:43, 30 April 2009 (UTC)

Sorry yes I wsas getting a bit confused, the other article talked about them as if they were something other than Betel leaves. Dmcq (talk) 14:30, 30 April 2009 (UTC)

• Support - Sirih appears to be identical to Betel, and the former page is little more than a stub. --Scray (talk) 05:27, 1 June 2009 (UTC)
• I merged it, the relevant contents appear in the medicinal section. Rigadoun (talk) 04:26, 29 August 2009 (UTC)

Almost all Indonesian women use sirih leaves in bath water after giving birth as it shrinks the vaginal canal

I think this is an unsupported claim. I found some English references to this, but they didn't seem very reliable. I could not find any such Indonesian references. Especially the part "almost all women" seems very bad style to me, and is not verifiable. eco_mate (talk) 12:45, 11 July 2010 (UTC)

Pronunciation

Can someone please provide us with a correct pronunciation of "betel" in both English IPA and Pronunciation respelling key. Thanks. Dreammaker182 (talk) 17:23, 19 October 2010 (UTC)