Chinese book highlights medicinal values of arecanut

Konkodi Padmanabha, former president of Central Arecanut and Cocoa Marketing and Processing Cooperative Ltd. (CAMPCO), who led a delegation to China last week, said on Tuesday that a book published in China had highlighted the medicinal qualities of arecanut.

The book would be produced before the Supreme Court, where a case between gutka manufacturers and non-governmental organisations was being heard, to prove the point that consumption of arecanut alone was not carcinogenic. CAMPCO had impleaded in the case, he said.

Addressing presspersons here, Mr. Padmanabha, who is currently one of the directors of CAMPCO, claimed that arecanut had been considered as a product having medicinal value in China.

The book titled

Compendium of Materia Medica published by Foreign Languages Press has six volumes. Medicinal values of arecanut had been mentioned in the fourth volume.

Excerpts

He released excerpts from the book and showed it at the press conference. Mr. Padmanabha, who is now president, Federation of Karnataka State Areca Marketing Cooperative Societies, Shivamogga, said that the book had mentioned that consumption of medicines made out of arecanut relived pain and helped muscle growth.

It dissolved stagnation of gas in the chest. “…It is good for treating heart pain and dissolve abdominal mass…”