VASUNDHARA, M.VAIDEHI VIDHANCHANDRA PAI2020-10-072020-10-072019-09-14Th-12481https://krishikosh.egranth.ac.in/handle/1/5810152654Arecanut is associated with tradition and used in different cultural, social, and religious ceremonies. Arecoline is primary active ingredient in the areca nut and has wide range of pharmacological activities. Development of a simple and rapid method to determine the content of arecoline in areca nut and its extracts before usage in any form of consumption is needed. An experiment was conducted at Department of Horticulture, UAS, GKVK to study the arecoline content in Areca catechu Linn. at various stages of maturity in different agroclimatic zones of Karnataka. Arecanut samples were collected from four agroclimatic zones (Zone - 4, 7, 9 and 10) at three different stages of maturity (5-6,7-8 and 9-10 months). The interaction effect of agro-climatic zones and stage of maturity as well as the individual effects of the two on the total alkaloid content, arecoline content in the nuts and percentage of arecoline was found to be significant. Among the agro-climatic zones, significantly high total alkaloid content (6.77 mg g-1) was recorded from Zone-7 and significantly high arecoline content (12.59 mg g-1) was recorded from Zone-10. Significantly high percentage arecoline in total alkaloids (38.141%) was noted in Zone-9. Mature nuts (9-10 month old) had higher total alkaloid content (9.11 mg g-1), arecoline content (4.84 mg g-1) and higher arecoline percentage of total alkaloids (53.896 %). Significantly high amount of total alkaloids (12.28 mg g-1) , arecoline content in the nuts (6.71 mg g-1) were recorded from mature nuts from Zone-10. However, the percentage arecoline in total alkaloids (55.44 %) was significantly in high mature nuts from Zone-9. Thus it was concluded that both agroclimatic zone and stage of maturity as well as their interaction impacted the arecoline content in arecanut.EnglishThesis