Study on Betel Leaf

1. Introduction

Piper betle, commonly known as betel leaf or Paan belongs to family Piperaceae. It is used as a masticatory food or breath freshener by the Asian people because of its pungent flavor. Betel leaf is popular among Bangladeshi people and is usually chewed with slices of betel nut (Areca catechu) and slaked lime. The leaf has a medicinal value and is widely used in social festivals for hospitality. It has a large market throughout the country, and is also exported to the Middle East, Britain, Pakistan and to some countries of Africa (Pthmai, et al., 2006).

Many experimental studies have established paan extract to have antimicrobial and antileshmian properties (Datta et al., 2011). Fresh juice of betel leaves is also used in many ayurvedic or traditional medicine preparations. Essential oil extracted from betel leaves may be used as an industrial raw material for manufacturing medicines, perfumes, mouth fresheners, tonics, food additives etc. (Guha, 2006). Various medicinal property demonstrated by betel leaf is attributable to its volatile oil which contains betel phenols, chavibetol, chavicol, cadinene, eugenol and hydroxychavicol, which have been ascribed to possess anti-oxidant and anticarcinogenic activities (Garg and Jain, 1992; Singh et al., 2009). Many of these compounds including chevibetol, hydroxychavicol and allylpyrocatechol have antioxidant activities (Chang et al., 2002; Rathee et al, 2006). The leaf has a significant antimicrobial activity against broad spectrum of micro-organisms (Jesonbabu et al., 2012). The betle shows the antimicrobial activity against Streptococcus pyrogens, Staphylococcus aureus, Proteus vulgaris, Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa etc (Chakraborty & Shah, 2013).

Betel leaf is considered as one of the value crops which contribute significantly to the national economy of Bangladesh. It is consumed in raw, which may pose public health problem if contaminated with various pathogenic bacteria. It has been reported recently that betel leaves are contaminated with Salmonella spp (European Commison, 2013) which prompted EU to ban betel leaf export from Bangladesh.

Foodborne infections of microbial source are a major health problem in Bangladesh. Salmonella spp. infection is one of the most common food-borne infections worldwide. Salmonella contamination in various foods is a noteworthy public health concern, domestically and nationally (Jones et al., 2001). In recent years, antibiotic resistance in Salmonella spp. has assumed alarming proportions worldwide (CDC, 2004).

Salmonella is transmitted through contaminated food and water. Therefore, it is not astonishing that there are reports of Salmonella contaminated paan, as the shopkeepers keep the betel leaves soaked for long hours in contaminated water. The bacterium causes typhoid and the common symptoms are high fever, severe aches, nausea, diarrhoea or constipation.  

The consumption of contaminated foods is the most prevalent route of transmission of salmonellosis to human. One of the largest food-borne Salmonella outbreaks to date occurred in 1985 and involved over 16,000 cases in 6 states in USA (FDA, 2009). In 2005, there was another outbreak of S. Typhimurium from fresh tomatoes (citation).