When we start consuming drugs

If we pulled the thread we can get an idea of to what extent our ancestors went to drug trancas. We knew, for example, that The barbarians They were so blind that we could explain much of the wars of antiquity. Even Two mummies They have told us to what extent the cocaine was established in past centuries.

Now, some teeth aim to offer us the “beginning” of this historical consumption.

The finding. A team of Thai researchers has managed to identify chemical remains of consumption from Betel In the dental plate of a woman between 25 and 35 years buried about 4,000 years ago In Nong Ratchawat, in the center of Thailand. The finding represents direct evidence oldest ever discovered of the use of Betel, a psychoactive practice that, despite being little known in the West, continues to be one of the most popular in the world, only surpassed by tobacco, coffee and alcohol.

He studywhich was based on advanced liquid chromatography techniques coupled to mass spectrometry (LC-MS), analyzed 36 samples of mineralized dental plate of several burials of the bronze age, and three of them offered unequivocal positive results that coincide with the chemical profiles of the Betel prepared according to traditional methods.

Make the impossible visible. The key to this advance does not reside solely in the identification of plant remains, but in the Applied Methodology. The positive sample contained traces of Arecaidine (from the Areca nut), Hydroxychavicol (from the betel leaf), and nicotine, probably due to the occasional use of tobacco as part of the mixture.

For validate your resultsthe team led by Piyawit Moonkham replied experimental form The ancestral chewing process, using dry areca nut, betel leaves, pink lime paste, cortex of Senegalia Catechutobacco, and human saliva, with the aim of generating a precise reference with which to compare the ancient samples.

Lost uses. This unusually detailed approach allowed detect molecules that do not leave visual trace and that would have been impossible to identify through traditional archaeological techniques.

According to the co -author From the study, Shannon Tushingham, this strategy not only reveals lost uses of the past, but opens a new way to rebuild cultural practices through biomolecular waste, even when there is no visible indication of them.

A living tradition. He betelor more specifically the brunette of Betel, is the name that receives the preparation composed of the Areca walnut wrapped in the Betel leaf and usually accompanied by lime off. This combination releases Arecolinaan alkaloid substance that produces mild stimulating effects, as a feeling of alert, warmth and well -being. Despite its invisibility in the official drug history, Betel has a social and ceremonial role deeply rooted in many Asian and oceanic cultures.

For millennia, it has been used in rituals Incidentally, festive events, and even as an element of community cohesion. The finding in Thailand demonstrates that this practice was already consolidated in Southeast Asia a thousand years before what was thought, challenging the linear narratives of cultural development and offering a new window to the intangible past.

Legacy with consequences. The discovery is not exempt from Medical and Social Implications. Today, Betel is an extended habit in countries like Papua New Guinea, where 50% of the population chews regularly, and where the highest oral cancer rate on the planet has been documented. Chronic consumption has also been seenInculated to diseases Hepatic, metabolic syndrome, cirrhosis and renal damage.

However, Betel too It has properties Antioxidants, antiparasitic, anti -inflammatory and antiseptic, which complicates its classification as a mere “harmful drug.” This ambivalence has fed its cultural permanence and has raised disparate responses in the different countries.

Consume Betel. In Taiwanfor example, consumption has decreased significantly among young people URBANITAS Thanks to public health campaigns, but Betel is still linked to a very particular aesthetic: that of The bīnláng xīshī or “Bellezas del Betel”, young women dressed in provocative outfits that sell the product in road shop windows.

This phenomenon, already in decline, has given way to a more conservative version, with major vendors in closed positions or night markets, but remains a living expression of cultural identity and historical memory.

Knowledge in front of stigma. One of the axes of the study It consisted of stressing that practices such as Betel’s consumption They should not be reduced to the category of “drugs” under contemporary western standards. Far from that, they represent medical, spiritual and community knowledge transmitted for generations, often ignored by classical archeology.

By identifying these chemical waste, the dental calculation analysis not only rewrites the history of the Betel, but also offers a framework to reassess many other psychoactive plants whose use has been invisible or repressed. As Moonkham statesUnderstanding the cultural context of the use of traditional plants is essential to recognize its true anthropological value and to generate a more nuanced dialogue around substance consumption.

Fascinating, since the dental calculation has returned the image of an anonymous woman who, 4,000 years ago, shared with her community a practice that still survives. A silent evidence that human desire to alter awareness, share experiences and ritualize the body has roots as deep as History itself.

Image | FFGGSS/Wikimedia Commons, Piyawit Moonkham

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