Areca Nut and its Products: A Culprit for Many Cancers

Abstract

This article is to give a comprehensive review about the areca nut, different products made from it, and the important cancers associated with the use of different products of areca nut. Areca nut is a chewing substance consumed by a large population around the globe including our country Pakistan. Areca nut is a constituent of many products like supari, pan, gutkha and mawa, which are frequently used in Pakistan especially in urban areas. Areca nut is very dangerous for human health as it is associated with a large number of benign and malignant diseases. Different products of the areca nut are associated with very common cancers like mouth cancer, cancer of oesophagus, salivary gland cancer, hepatocellular cancer and different other head and neck cancer. To answer the research question “Areca nut and its products: A Culprit for many cancers” the literature review was done using Pubmed, google scholar and Medline using keywords “areca nut, paan, gutkha and cancers” and relevant articles from the year 2000 to the year 2020 were searched and relevant articles were selected in this review. The cancers of the oral cavity, oesophagus and liver develop in habitual chewers of areca nut due to the presence of some dangerous chemicals present in areca nut like arecoline which is an alkaloid. Arecoline and some other alkaloids cause cancer of the human body by inhibiting the tumor suppressor gene. Areca nut and its products should be strictly banned in Pakistan to decrease the burden of these cancers.