Two early forager skeletons from Southeast Asia — one dated 25,000-16,000 years ago, another 7,600-6,300 years ago — had deep, rounded, hollowed grooves cut into their teeth. Testing showed betel nut (areca palm) arecoline at physiologically active levels, and chemical analysis detected it in the dental tissue. The wear caused pulp exposure, so toothache likely drove repeated use. Earliest known drug use yet! 🦷🌴
25,000-year-old human teeth reveal earliest betel nut drug use
Key facts
- Study of two early forager skeletons dated to 25,000-16,000 years ago and 7,600-6,300 years ago found unusually deep, rounded, hollowed-out tooth grooves
- Betel nut (areca palm fruit) contains arecoline, a cholinergic stimulant reputed to be the world's fourth most popular psychoactive after alcohol, caffeine and nicotine
- Researchers soaked betel nuts in artificial saliva and tested the resulting broths against cloned human receptors expressed in frog egg cells, showing whole-nut sucking releases physiologically effective amounts of arecoline
- Biochemical analysis of the teeth detected arecoline in the dental tissues, corroborating habitual ingestion
- Severe dental wear exposed inner pulp chambers, likely causing toothache that arecoline's painkilling effect relieved, creating a cycle of continued use
- The findings push evidence of psychoactive drug use back to the late Pleistocene, making it the earliest known drug use in the world by thousands of years
Sources
Betel nut chewingen.wikipedia.org
The practice of betel nut chewing originated in Southeast Asia, where the plant ingredients are native. Betel nut stains have been found in ancient remains of ...
BETEL CHEWING IN SOUTH-EAST ASIArooneyarchive.net
Areca-nut in Indonesia was mentioned in a Chinese chronicle of the first half of the sixth century (Book 54 of the History of the Liang Dynasty ). Persian ...
BETEL NUT (ARECA NUT): HISTORY, USE AND BUZZfactsanddetails.com
Evidence for the earliest use of areca nut in mainland Southeast Asia in fact points to two different cultural complexes with different linguistic affiliations ...
4000-year-old teeth reveal earliest evidence of betel nut ...archaeologymag.com
A recent study uncovered the oldest direct biochemical evidence of betel nut chewing in Southeast Asia, dating back 4,000 years.
For Kings and Peasants: The History of Betel-chewingzebregsroell.com
The most splendid of all boxes made in Asia are those that held the most common thing: betel-nuts, also known as Sirih in Indonesia.
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