Betelvine (Piper Betle L.)

Endeavours have been made to characterize the local cultivars of betelvine from several traditional pockets of Bangladesh. Efforts have also been intensified to make an indepth study on genetic variabilities under the morphophysiological purviews with a drive for hunting biologically active compound for drug development. Wide range of variability existed among the cultivars and the characters viz., leaf area per plant, relative growth rate and total dry weight would be given priority in selection for the improvement of leaf yield in betelvine. The growth of betelvine could be increased significantly by the application of plant growth regulators to the stem cuttings before plantation. Aceteugenol, a biologically active compound was isolated from the chloroform extract of powdered leaves of cv. Shal. The crude chloroform extract exhibited strong antibactrial property against a number of gram positive and gram negative pathogenic bacteria as well as fungi. The extract was also found to be lethal to brine shrimp napulii indicating the extract is biologically active.