In the present work, we have shown by MRI that during maturation
of areca nut, the liquid content within starts solidifying from
the peripheral regions of the nut and solidification process moves
towards the center. Volume localized MRS affords fairly high resolution
molecular fingerprinting especially at the early stages, and
demonstrates the presence of sugars, lipids, and alkaloids,
although on commencement of structure formation, the present
voxel resolution does not permit differentiation of different zones
of the structure in the moderately tender nut. During the solidification
process itself, B and W regions start forming. Furthermore, by
different mass spectrometric methods, we have also shown that in
the ripened areca nut, arecoline, arecaidine, and guvacoline get
segregated in the B region while guvacine gets segregated in the
Wregion. As the major fraction of the alkaloids stay in the B region
of the ripened areca nut, it is safer to consume theWportion of the
ripened nut. Thus areca nut can be used in a safer way to tap its
medicinal activities if the W and B regions are separated.