Media Release

Mangaluru, Apr 11: An interim report on the medicinal properties of areca nut was submitted to the union government recently.

The report states that several scientific evidences confirm areca nut is not carcinogenic but cures cancer. The report was submitted to the health and family welfare minister Dr J P Nadda and agriculture and farmers welfare Radha Mohan Singh on April 5 by a delegation consisting of S R Satishchandra, president- CAMPCO, Konkodi Padmanabha, president- Karnataka State Areca nut Societies Marketing Federation, Yedegere Subrahmanya Bhat, vice president- MAMCOS, H S Shivakumar, president- TUMCOS and Ravindra J Hegde, director- TSS Ltd under the leadership of Ananth Kumar Hegde, union minister for skill development.

Union agriculture and farmers welfare minister and union health and family welfare ministers have been requested to conduct a thorough scientific study on the medicinal, photochemical properties and effects of Areca nut chewing on human health under the aegis of ICAR- Central Plantation Crops Research Institute (CPRCI) in association with CSIR- Central Institute of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants (CIMAP), Lucknow and CSIR- Central Food Technology Research Institute, Mysuru; CSIR- Centre for Cellular Molecular Biology (CCMB), Hyderabad; ICMR- National Institute of Cancer Prevention and Research (NICPR), Noida. Kidwai Memorial Institute of Oncology, Bengaluru etc and collect complete scientific data.

Till then, the delegation has requested the health minister not to proceed further on the subject at the Supreme Court.

Areca nut is said to be having a plethora of medicinal properties both for human beings and livestock. Way back in 1974, scientists from Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru reported that Areca nut cures cancer. The same has also been substantiated by a group of 25 eminent scientists at the Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University, Atlanta, USA in 2016.

Apart from this, Areca nut has several medicinal properties such as decreasing diabetes, cholesterol, Alzheimer’s, killing several pathogenic bacteria, fungi, protozoan parasites etc.

It has anti HIV and AIDS, antimalarial, anthelmintic properties too. It helps in reducing pain and curing wounds and ulcers etc. It posses good anti-venom properties.

In China, more than 30 medicines have already been prepared using Areca nut and is being practiced even now as reported in ‘Materia Medica’. Accordingly, the same has been enlightened to the union government by the delegation.

Both the union ministers have assured to take positive action on the said matter and hence the farmer fraternity is requested not to panic.

President of CAMPCO, S R Satishchandra and president of Karnataka state Areca Marketing Federation Konkodi Padmanabha in a joint press release stated that both the organisations stand firm in protecting the interest of the Areca nut farmers.