The history of eat areca

The history of eat areca can be traced back to the era of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, while the consumption of betel nut was prevalent in the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties. At that time, betel nut was a veritable aristocratic food, which ordinary people could not afford.

Sima Qian recorded in Historical Records that when Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty marched to South Vietnam, the soldiers in the north could not stand the miasma in the south, and many of them got sick. Some people saw that the betel nuts hanging on the treetops were really cute, so they picked them and ate them. After eating betel nuts, the patients miraculously recovered. So the whole army took betel nut to solve the furuncle.

Later, when Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty won the victory, he brought back many exotic flowers and trees in the south when he returned to Chang 'an, including, of course, betel nut, which saved the lives of the whole army. However, areca catechu is a tropical tree, which is difficult to adapt to the dry and cold weather in the north and cannot survive. It can only be planted in South Vietnam, which is today's Hainan, Taiwan Bay and Guangdong and Guangxi regions.

Therefore, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty appointed South Vietnam to offer betel nuts as a tribute. When Sima Xiangru listed rare flowers and trees in his famous "Shang Lin Fu", he wrote: "Leave the spare parts, and the benevolence is frequent." Remaining, surplus and merging all refer to palms or palm-like trees, and kernel frequency is betel nut.