The Central Arecanut and Cocoa Marketing and Processing Cooperative (Campco) Ltd has sought the Health Ministry’s intervention against the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) classification of arecanut as carcinogenic. It supported its demand with findings from various national and international agencies.

A recent report by WHO’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) has linked oral cancer to smokeless tobacco and arecanut use.

In a letter to the Minister for Health and Family Welfare JP Nadda, Campco President, A Kishore Kumar Kodgi, said even though IARC’s classification is largely based on research and review papers, a closer examination of these studies indicates that the data predominantly pertains to chewing mixtures such as betel quid and ‘gutkha” rather than arecanut alone in its natural form.

Research reports by both national and international agencies on arecanut have demonstrated that arecanut is not carcinogenic but exhibits anti-carcinogenic properties.

IISc studies

“Modern investigations have demonstrated that arecanut has various pharmacological activities, including positive effects on nervous, cardiovascular, endocrine, anti-parasitic and digestive system,” he said, and supported his claims by providing the findings of various research papers.  

He said studies carried out by the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in 1974 confirmed that arecanut and betel quid extracts without tobacco did not induce any tumour when they were applied on the skin of both normal and immune suppressed mice. The study also confirmed the anti-cancer activity of arecanut.

Referring to the studies conducted at the Atlanta-based Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University by a group of 25 scientists in 2016, he said arecoline, the main active principle of arecanut, was found to arrest the growth of cancer cells, both in-vitro and in-vivo studies.

Quoting the studies conducted by the Taiwan-based Taipei Medical University Hospital in 2021, Kodgi said it was reported that the arecanut extract suppressed tumour progression in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). It was further confirmed in animal models where the treatment of arecanut extract significantly reduced tumour size. The authors even suggested that arecanut extract may be a new potential compound for HCC therapy, he said.

Nitte study

Citing a recent study report by Nitte (a deemed-to-be university in Dakshina Kannada), he said the laboratory studies done at Nitte showed that aqueous extract of whole arecanut showed no toxic effect in cells as well as in organisms such as fruit fly and zebrafish. “On the other hand, the areca extract showed cytotoxic activity against cancer derived cells,” he said.

Highlighting these findings, the letter said these observations further support the traditional Indian knowledge that use of arecanut alone is not harmful. While arecoline present in arecanut has been suspected to be involved in harmful effects, the carcinogenic potential of arecoline is not fully established.

“It is possible that in the whole arecanut there are molecules that can neutralise any potential harmful effects of arecoline. Further the cytotoxic effect of arecanut extract on cancer cells suggests that there is potential to study arecanut as a source of anti-cancer molecules,” he said.

Requesting the Health Minister’s intervention in advocating a re-evaluation of arecanut’s classification by WHO’s IARC, Kodgi said arecanut farmers are concerned about the impact of such a classification, as livelihoods of many farmers and their families are dependent on this crop.

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