Paan

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Paan, pan (in many Indic languages, हिन्दी : पान ), or beeda (in Tamil) is a type of Indian snack, which consists of fillings wrapped in a triangular package using leaves of the Betel pepper (Piper betle) and held together with a toothpick or a clove.

Paan is chewed as a palate cleanser and a breath freshener. It is also commonly offered to guests and visitors as a sign of hospitality and eaten at cultural events. Paan filling is generally a mixture of various spices, fruits, and sugar. Paan makers may use mukhwas or tobacco as an ingredient to their paan fillings. Paan is also widely available through South Asian grocers in the United States. Although many types of paan contain Betel nuts as a filling, many other types do not.

"Paan" is sometimes mistakenly translated as "Betel nut", the seed of the tropical palm Areca catechu. Rather, supari is the term for betel nut in many Indic languages. The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) regards betel nut to be a known human carcinogen.

Paan is an important part of North Indian culture and its chewing is part of a social act. However in urban areas, chewing paan is generally associated with the nuisance created by spitting of the paan juice in public places.

[edit] Varieties

Paan is available in many different forms and flavours. The most commonly found include:

Tobacco (tambaku paan): Betel leaf filled with powdered tobacco with spices.
Betel nut (paan supari or sada paan): Betel leaf filled with a mixture consisting of a of coursely ground or chopped betel nuts and other spices, called paan masala.
"Sweet" (meetha paan): Betel leaf with no tobacco and betel nuts. The filling is made up primarily of coconut, fruit preserves, and various spices. It also often served with a maraschino cherry.Paan was invented by Scholars of Aruvedas with the help of Dhanvantari thousands of years ago after taking experiment on rats. Paan was found out good for digestion Even reference of Paan is found in Shrimad Bhagavatam as Lord Krishna used to chew. This evidence is of 5000 years ago.