Browsing by Author "S. Keshava Bhat"

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    How Areca Nut Chewing Was Made the Cause for Oral Submucous Fibrosis and Oral Cancer: An Analysis
    (2025-06-01) S. Keshava Bhat; Sukesh Bhat
    Areca nut is the nut or seed of Areca catechu palm. This nut is mostly used for chewing because of its immense beneficial effects. The antiquity of its chewing goes back to more than thousand years. Of late, several researchers claimed areca nut chewing as the cause for oral submucous fibrosis and oral cancer. But in most of such research papers it was observed that the chewing substance was not authenticated by any experts in plant science leading to wrong identification of the chewing material. Consequently, the chewing mixtures such as betel quid, pan masala, gutkha, etc were wrongly quoted as areca nut and the researchers tagged the ill effects of chewing such mixtures to areca nut. Certain reviewers, without noticing such lacunae, published several review papers under the heading areca nut chewing. Some of such research and review papers are cited and analysed in this article.