Study On The Chemical Constituents Of Areca Nut

Areca nut is a fruit of Areca cathchu Linn., one of the palm species, and it is the most commonly used addictions in the world after tobacco, ethanol and caffeine. In China, it is widely used as a common herbal medicine in clinical medicine. But the commercial chewing nut has been occupied the prevalent market share in Hunan province. Therefore, it's important to study on the chemical constituents of areca nut deeply and systematically.In this study, the areca nut from Hainan,Taiwan and Vietnam were used as the raw material. The arecoline, fatty acid, amino acid, inorganic elements of areca nut were determined and analysed.The arecoline of areca nut was extracted of aether with experiments designs of the single factor and orthogonal test. The result showed that the optimum conditions of supersonic extraction technique at 30min,80w,1:12(solid/liquid,w/v). After comparing the ordinary extraction with the supersonic extraction, we found the supersonic extraction was superior.The arecoline of areca nut was determined by GC-MS. It was qualitatively analyzed by RT(retention time) and GC-MS, it was quantitatively analyzed by ES(external standard). Recovery and relative standard deviation of this method were 2.56% and 98.6～102.6%. The arecoline of Hainan, Taiwan and Vietnam areca nut were determined and it was compared to the capacity mthod. The result showed that the content of arecoline was from 0.12% to 0.38% by GC-MS while it was from 0.32～0.56% by capacity method. The content of arecoline by capacity method included other alkaloid in areca nut. The content of arecoline by GC-MS and capacity method from high to low were all:Vietnam seeds, Hainan seeds, Taiwan seeds, Taiwan peels, Vietnam peels, Hainan peels.The composition and relative contents of fatty acid in areca nut were determined by GC-MS. The fatty acid was appraised by principal component analysis. The result showed that areca nut contain octanoic acid, capric acid, lauric acid, tetradecanoate acid, palmitoieic acid, palmitic acid, heptadecanoic acid, linoleic acid, linolenic acid, oleic acid, stearic acid. The relative contents of palmitic acid, linoleic acid, oleic acid were 27.70～42.28%,29.3～33.80%,10.15～29.50%. The unsaturated fatty acids were 51.74～66.84%. The characteristic fatty acid were palmitic acid, linoleic acid, stearic acid, octanoic acid, capric acid, lauric acid. The appraisement of fatty acid from high to low is:Taiwan seeds, Taiwan peels, Hainan peels, Vietnam peels, Vietnam seeds, Hainan seeds.A method for determining amino acid by post-column derivatization liquid chromatography with fluorescent detection was studied. The result showed that the areca nut contained 14 kinds of amino acid,7 kinds of essential amino acids. The content of glutamic acid, valine, leucine, histidine, phenylalanine were higher. Total amino acid of Hainan, Vietnam, Taiwan areca nut were 5.41%,6.06%,5.49%, respectively.The nutrition content of peels and seeds of Hainan, Vietnam, Taiwan areca nut were determined and compared. The result showed:The peels had not positive linear correlation with the seeds on protein and reductive sugar; the peels had positive linear correlation with the seeds on fat. The inorganic elements of areca nut were determined, the result showed:Hainan, Vietnam, Taiwan areca nut all contained Fe, Cu, Mn, Zn which were necessary for human beings and constant mineral element such as K,Ca, Mg.