Betel come from central and eastern Malaysia, the discovery proved to wild type of this plant, where the betel fruit is very easy to find. In the course of time, plants are then cultivated for over 2500 years ago in all of Asia to Madagascar and East Africa. In India, and in Asia in general, the importance lies in relation to betel leaf with every aspect of human life including social, cultural, religious, and even everyday life until recently. An example is the habit of chewing betel nut, which is considered to freshen the mouth and add power, routinely performed at social events, culture, and religion such as marriage and death. The leaves of this herb is also used as a special dish for guests in order to show respect.
Betel is a climbing plant to settle down two, or sometimes even married one, woody, bald, with a height of 5-15 m. There are two kinds of branching in plants of this herb, which is the main branches that grow upward or called branching ortotropic, which always produces the vegetative and have roots attached for climbing, and children branches which arise from the branching ortotropic, or called branching plagiotropic generating section generative and has no roots. In both types of branching, the stem swells books. Single leaf, turns, strands of round like an egg-sized 5-20.5 cm × 2-13.4 cm, stems such as heart disease, led to pointed, flat edged, fleshy like bone but soft, and has a bald or hairy surface on the bone systems under leaves. Bone leaves numbered 2-3 pairs, 1 pair of which stems from the mother leaves and the remaining bones from the base of the leaf. Betel inflorescence unisexual, grow hang dealing with leaves, with the size of the inflorescence to 12 cm in males or 5.5 cm in females.Flowers of this herb is very small and do not have a flower jewelry, flower genitals only protected by braktea. Braktea often become important features in the taxonomy of Piper. In betel, braktea sit down and attached to the mother's flower stalk at one point, with a strand round breech or rounded like an egg and shaved and trimmed short toothed or not. Braktea this protects the two short stamens or pistils are headed 3-5. Fruit a fleshy mass and cylinder-shaped green that is actually a collection of many pieces that are attached buni. Seeds of betel slightly rounded and very small.
In wild conditions, this herb grows in tropical rain forests. Like most other types piper, betel prefer shade shaded and sheltered from the wind and thrive in the humid forest environment with adequate soil moisture. Cultivation is generally carried out in places with an altitude of 000-900 m above sea level with annual rainfall of 2250-4750 mm. Piper in general, and betel nut in particular, easily propagated by planting two segments ortotropiknya bottom of the cut end of branches 30-45 cm long and have 3-5 segments. Once they begin to germinate and spread, cuttings are tied to the buffer.
Betel is a plant that is still easy to find in the yard or garden house.This is due to another position in society betel associated with health and healing. Medicinal substance in this herb is a volatile oil whose composition varies among varieties. Important content of essential oil of betel leaf is eugenol, kavikol, methyl kavikol (estragol) and kavibetol (betelfenol, isomer of eugenol). Kavikol provide distinctive smell of betel and has bacteria killing power five times that of ordinary phenol. In addition to be antiseptic, oil of betel leaves and roots also have tumor inhibiting properties.
