| Summary: | 碩士 === 國立高雄師範大學 === 生物科技系 === 102 === The areca nut is commonly consumed by Asian populations and migrated communities living in Africa, Europe, and North America. The habit of chewing areca nut has been associated with an increased risk of oral cancer in several epidemiologic studies. Arecoline, one of the areca alkaloids, has been shown to be implicated in pathogenesis of oral diseases because of its carcinogenic potential. However, relatively little is known about the metabolism of arecoline in human. We describe the use of liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry for the simultaneous measurement of three major metabolites of areca nut, arecoline, arecaidine, and N-methylnipecotic acid in saliva, blood, and urine samples. Five adult male healthy areca nut chewers (experimental group) and one adult male control volunteered to participate in this study. We found salivary arecoline exceeding the 0.1 μg/ml threshold in all experimental participants for 25 min during, and for 10 min after chewing. Arecoline and metabolites concentrations varied greatly over time between individuals, but the levels of arecoline were much higher than the others. It seemed that arecoline was not metabolized to less or non toxic metabolites in oral tissues. Time course studies of blood and urine revealed that the major metabolite was arecaidine, followed by N-methylnipecotic acid and arecoline. Our method for detection of three metabolites of areca nut alkaloids and finding in volunteers may facilitate the research design in the pathogenic effects of areca nut exposure.
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