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Torsten

Back from holidays, betle and woodroses.

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Daniel and I had a ball.

We flew to Cairns and spent the first day getting our bearings and doing all the touristy things around cairns and Kuranda. At Gem's recommendation we headed north to Cape Tribulation where we spent a couple of relaxing and romantic days in a rainforest resort. Walks on tropical beaches, cracking fresh coconuts that had fallen off the palms, gorging ourselves on weird tropical fruit and taking piles and piles of botanical photos.

We spotted a plant that looked very much like Argyreia nervosa. In fact I was sure it was it. Locals told me it is a weed and is killing the rainforest. I thought, hmmmm, maybe we can give them an incentive to 'harvest' it wink.gif.

But as we found out from the local botanist, it is not a weed and it is not Argyreia nervosa, but instead the native Merremia peltata. No seed though, so we could not bioassay.

We did source some betel nuts fresh off the palm though and leanrt the chewing custom from one happy samoan lady (she'd had a few nuts already).

This is how it goes. You crack the shell and pop the soft nut out. Stick it in your gob and chew on it once to break it. Then you stick a damp Piper betle flower into the lime and place 1cm of flower and the lime into your mouth on top of the nut. Then you chew. The pepper is quite hot and very aromatic. The nut is ..... one word: astringent.

Apparently, when the women are in public or while working they don't swallow the first lot of saliva. They spit it out as it makes them too 'drunk' (her words). But here comes the whammy. While we were struggling with half a nut, they chewed 3 or 4 in that time. I asked them how many they chew in a day and she said about 100. Then I noticed that her little girl was chewing one too. She couldn't have been more than 10. Mum said with a big smile 'it cleans her out'.

This was quite an amazing experience and it raises more questions than it answered. The woman said that if you have too much you become drunk and then you go to sleep. Huh!!??!! The kids go to sleep real easy on it apparently.

I managed to have a half a nut for my first try and to the samoan women's entertainment I did not cope with either the taste of it nor the effect. I had to bid my farewells as I was loosing the plot a little. It was stinking hot and I was not prepared for the assault on my system. I would compare the intensity of effect to my very first ever cigarette.

Daniel and I chewed fresh nuts all week, although in total we probably only chewed about 8 or 10 between us. Small amounts seem pleasant in the heat (37 deg C during the day), but larger amounts become exhausting.

We are going back in a few weeks and I will make a documentary with this lady. She was so much fun.

Anyway, we saturated ourselves with touristy things that week. Cable skyways, aboriginal galleries (lots of them), crocodile parks, a working sugar cane mill, lots and lots of rainforest, beaches, and yummy food wherever we went (seems like all the good chefs are in FNQ in winter wink.gif)..... the week ended way too quickly. next time it will be 4WD further north and further west, staying off the tourist trails.

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Good to see you had actual fun, you bloodywell deserve it smile.gif

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Guest reville

Im wondering if the child ate it with the lime or not

If they didnt then it would have little effect (supposedly) except as she said to 'clean her out'

Betel is a great anthelmintic, it paralyses the worms causing them to let go and be expelled.In TCM its called Bin lang - used for the same purpose

Can you imagine Asia without betel as a prophylactic? itd be horrific and they certainly wouldnt be able to eat pork anymore for fear of the Pork tapeworm (Taenia solium)(unlike the beef tapeworm which is relatively benign - the pork tapeworm not only lives in the gut but will migrate through the body and encyst in your muscles)

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Originally posted by reville:

Im wondering if the child ate it with the lime or not

with lime.

If they didnt then it would have little effect (supposedly) except as she said to 'clean her out'

Betel nuts are quite active even without lime. Your mouth is alkaline, so chewing them slowly will easily basify most of the alkaloid. For a quick hit or a large dose you will need lime.

Areca seems to have a definite effect on peristalsis. Every time I start to chew, or when I chew a little too much at once I get 'the urge', but without any real need or possibility.

The mother also said that the kids have to chew slower so they don't fall asleep/get 'drunk'.

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Hi Torsten,

This key is useful for the determination of CONVOLVULACEAE genera that occur in Queensland. It was transcribed from the book:

Clifford, H.T., Ludlow H.T., 1978. Keys to the Families and Genera of Queensland Flowering Plants (Magnoliophyta) – 2nd Edition, University of Queensland Press, Queensland

CONVOLVULACEAE

Flowers bisexual, actinomorphic; calyx persistent, usually divided into 5 sepals; corolla usually 5-angled and folded in bud; stamens 5, inserted in corolla-tube, alternating with lobes; ovary superior, usually 2-or-more locular; ovules few; styles 1-2; fruit capsule; seeds scarcely endospermic; mostly climbing or creeping herbs; leaves alternate, simple, exstipulate.

1. Leafless, yellowish twining parasite Cuscuta

Leafy plants, climbing, prostrate or erect 2

2. No style, stigma subsessile Ericybe

Styles 1-2 3

3. Style 1 undivided 4

Styles 2, free or connate towards the base 14

4. Stigma capitate or 2-lobed 5

Stigma with 4-8 linear lobes Polymeria

5. Stigmatic lobes nearly globular or stigma capitate 6

Stigmatic lobes elongated 12

6. Fruit indehiscent, fleshy or leathery Argyreia

Fruit dehiscent (usually 2-4 valved capsule) 7

7. Capsule circumscissile, upper part of epicarp separating Operculina

from lower part and from endocarp 8

8. Pollen spiny 9

Pollen smooth 11

9. Staminal filaments linear or dilated at base; C. tubular10

Staminal filaments dilated at base into 5 concave scales Lepistemon

arching over ovary; C. urceolate

10. K. in fruit much enlarged, completely enclosing ripe Stictocardia

fruit; lvs. with oil glands beneath

K. not enclosing ripe fruit; lvs. without oil glands Ipomoea

Outer K. in fruit much enlarged, completely enclosing ripe

fruit

11. Outer K. much longer and broader than inner ones Aniseia

Outer K. not both distinctly longer and broader than inner Merremia

ones

12. Stigmatic lobes ovate or oblong Jacquemontia

Stigmatic lobes linear-filiform to subulate 13

13. Bracteoles minute, remote from K.; capsule 2-locular Convolvulus

Bracteoles 2, enlarged and enclosing K.; capsule 1-locular Calystegia

or incompletely 2-locular

14. Styles more or less connate toward base Bonamia

Styles quite free 15

15. Styles entire, with capitate stigmas 16

Styles 2-branches, with linear stigmas Evolvulus

16. Lvs. on long petioles, orbicular or reniform Dichondra

Lvs. sessile or on short petioles, ovate-lanceolate Cressia

I found another book which gives some fairly good descriptions of the various Convolvulaceae genera (thankfully including Rivea/Turbina) and points out some of the important distinguishing characters:

Menninger, E.A., 1970. Flowering Vines of the World – An Encyclopaedia of Climbing Plants, Hearthside Press Incorporated, New York

It isn’t too bad, apart from the black and white photos and its claim that Ipomoea tricolor became notorious because of its containing small amounts of LSD.

In case you can’t find it, I’ll transcribe some of the relevant bits…

Argyreia nervosa

[syn. Argyreia speciosa]

The woolly morning-glory is a coarse, very heavy Indian climber… The smooth, ovate to heart shaped dark green leaves are densely covered beneath with silky white hairs. They measure 3-12 inches wide and they overlap on the vine so as to provide solid shade.

The same soft, silvery tomentum covers the branches, the leaf stalks, the flower stems and calyx, and even the twining tips of new growth. The funnelform flowers 2 to 3 inches long, borne in clusters on 6-inch stems are rosy-purple inside and white-hairy outside.

Merremia

This rather large genus containing 80 species occurs throughout the tropics of both hemispheres. It is admittedly very close to Ipomoea from which it differs essentially in having smooth pollen grains; those of Ipomoea are spiny, as can easily be seen under an ordinary hand lens. The flowers of Merremia species are more often yellow or white, where as only a few Ipomoea such as I. obscura …have truly yellow flowers.

Another Book I found had a description of Merremia peltata as follows:

A comparatively slender-stemmed but vigorous vine. The lower parts of the stems are woody whilst the upper sections are green and fairly soft. The stems contain a lot of fibre and this makes them strong, supple and not easily broken. It is a species that grows rapidly and extremely luxuriantly. The illustration demonstrates these qualities and such a sight is commonplace. Vigorous growth is assisted as the habitat receives an extremely high annual rainfall……the leaves of the plant may be ±30cm in diameter. The flowers are large ephemeral and are produced in profusion over a fairly long period….

Williams, K.A.W., 1988. Native Plants of Queenland – Volume 2.,

Oh well the text isn’t much use, but it has a photo of a bona fide Merremia peltata that reveals that it only looks vaguely similar to Argyreia nervosa from a distance. You can tell between Argyreia and Merremia fairly easily from appearance of the leaves top or bottom, aswell as the upper parts of the stem. Argyreia nervosa has very woolly undersides that are like felt, aswell as woolly, whitish, hairy stems. Merremia peltata has much less hair on the underside of the leaves and has green, smooth stems. Also, the venation looks kind of different, and the way Merremia peltata leaves have a more prominent ‘crease’ down the center. If you can check out the flowers or the fruit, its even easier to tell them apart. Argyreia have smooth, indehiscent fruit whereas Merremia have lines of dehiscence on the capsule.

You’ve got to watch some botanists who jump to too many conclusions and aren’t ready for the unpredicted. My guess is that the vine you were looking at was indeed HBWR, and the botanist just assumed that his/her guess was better than yours. Argyreia nervosa doesn’t appear in any of the local plant books, so a lot of conservative or inexperienced botanists wouldn’t know what one was or looked like, let alone what the seeds could be used for.

Torsten I sent this message with more detail to your email.

Cya

Fractal

[This message has been edited by Fractalhead (edited 07 July 2002).]

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