ARECANUT

Alternate uses of Arecanut

Tannins:Tannins are obtained as a by-product from the process of preparing immature betel nuts for masticatory purposes. It was found that tannic acid from the nut, when mixed with ferrous sulphate in warm distilled water gave black writing ink of acceptable quality. He used immature fallen nuts for this purpose. Other uses of tannin are as adhesive in plywood industries and as a textile dye.

Fats:The nuts contain 8-12 per cent fat. Fat from arecanut, can be extracted by solvent extraction using hexane. Areca fat has comparable characteristics with hydrogenated coconut oil. Areca fat can be made edible by refining with an alkali. The fat could be softened by fractional crystallization using hexane (25ºC) and randomization using sodium methoxide, which gave products desirable for use as confectionery fat. Simple blending of areca fat with butter fat and cocoa fat at 3:1 ratio followed by interesterification of areca fat and cocoa fat at 1:1 ratio gave good products acceptable in confectioneries.

Arecanut husk:

It is the outer cover of areca fruit. It constitutes 60-80 per cent of the total volume and weight of the fruits (fresh weight basis). It is now being largely wasted except for being used as an inferior fuel and mulch. Several processes have been developed for utilization of areca husk for making hard boards, plastic and brown wrapping paper. Areca husk is used as a substrate for mushroom cultivation. Arecanut husk fibre is generally longer than woolenised jute, goat hair or coir fibre. About 50 per cent of arecanut husk fibre is finer than other fibres and the remaining 50 per cent of fibre is coarser than those fibres. The tenacity value of arecanut husk fibre is comparable with that of goat hair and woollenised jute. Wet weight of arecanut husk fibre is comparable with that of other fibres. The weight and thickness of all fibre reinforced plastic sheets are comparable. The proportion of fibre in the fibre reinforced plastic sheets varied between 7.6 and 9.9 per cent. The proportion of arecanut husk fibre is higher (9.12 per cent) in comparison with that of glass fibre (7.9 per cent), though the thickness and water swelling ie, increase in weight of the sheets by immersion in water for 20 days, values are same.

Areca leaf sheath:

Leaf sheath is yet another raw material obtained from the arecanut palm. In a year palm sheds 5-6 leaves. A process has been developed for making plyboards from areca leaf sheath. These boards can be used for making suitcases, fileboards, and tea chests. Leaf sheath cup making machine is available in the market for making arecanut leaf sheath cups of different sizes and shape.

Arecanut leaf sheath was found suitable for making plyboards. Two plies of processed arecanut leaf sheaths in combination with an ordinary wood veneer as core glued with urea formaldehyde resin are used for making the plyboards. Leaf sheaths obtained from the farm are highly heterogenous having variations in structure, shape and thickness. The rear end is thicker and the two edges are thinner. The thickness at the center ranges from 3.0 – 8.5 mm (average 5.0 mm). A comparatively homogenous piece of fairly uniform thickness and size 50-65 x 20-25 cm can be obtained if a piece of about 10 cm length from either sides along the grain direction, 5 cm from the distal and 10-15 cm from the end across the grain direction are trimmed out from the sheath. Further, to get a flat sheath of uniform thickness and to remove the buck lings of folds, the sheath is flattened under pressure and heat. For this, the sheaths are soaked in water to about 75 per cent moisture and then pressed for 30 min in a hot Plate press at 4 kg/cm2 pressure and 110ºC temperature. This process gives flat sheaths of 1.0-1.5 mm thickness with about 12 per cent moisture. To prevent fungal growth on the sheath surface, it can be soaked in 1 per cent copper sulphate solution for 24 hr before pressing. The pressed sheaths are then air dried for one hour or longer. The arecanut leaf sheath plyboards made with two veneers of areca sheaths as the faces and one veneer of even an ordinary wood species like Mango as core ply and bonded with Urea formaldehyde resin make commercially acceptable boards with average dry and wet glue shear strengths of 50 kg and 12 kg respectively.

Arecanut stem and leaf:

Arecanut stem forms a useful building material in the villages and is widely used in arecanut growing area for a variety of construction purposes. The leaves are good source of organic manure. Their approximate composition is N2 (0.94 per cent); P2O5 (0.096 per cent) and K20 (1.00 per cent).

Last updated: 22-05-2008