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yesterday

4,000-Year-Old Thai Dental Plaque Reveals Earliest Biochemical Evidence of Betel Nut Chewing

Using a minimally invasive LC-MS method, researchers confirmed repeated betel nut consumption from dental calculus, setting the stage for broader archaeological applications.

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Archaeologists are still unearthing fragments of ancient communities at Nong Ratchawat, Thailand, where they have already found the remains of 156 individuals.
Betel nut materials from an ethnobotanical garden in Thailand.
Researchers scraped tiny portions of plaque from teeth and dental remains at the Neolithic site.

Overview

  • Analysis of three dental calculus samples from Burial 11 at central Thailand’s Nong Ratchawat site detected arecoline and arecaidine, compounds specific to betel nuts.
  • This marks the earliest direct biomolecular proof of betel nut chewing in Southeast Asia, outdating previous inferences based on tooth stains or plant fragments.
  • The liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry protocol was validated with experimentally chewed control samples, demonstrating its precision and minimal invasiveness.
  • Lack of tooth staining in the tested individual highlights how conventional archaeological markers may underestimate ancient betel nut use.
  • Scientists plan to extend dental calculus testing to additional burials and sites to explore cultural, social and ritual dimensions of ancient plant use.