A carbon nanofiber was produced from the Areca catechu husk as a supercapacitor electrode, utilizing a chemical activation of potassium hydroxide (KOH) at different concentrations. One-stage integrated pyrolysis both carbonization and physical activation were employed for directly converting biomass to activated carbon nanofiber. The morphology structure, specific surface area, pore structure characteristic, crystallinity, and surface compound were characterized to evaluate the influence on electrochemical performance. The electrochemical performance of the supercapacitor was measured using cyclic voltammetry (CV) through a symmetrical system in 1 M H2SO4. The results show that the KOH-assisted or absence activation converts activated carbon from aggregate into a unique structure of nanofiber. The optimized carbon nanofiber showed the large specific surface area of 838.64 m2 g−1 with the total pore volume of 0.448 cm3 g−1, for enhancing electrochemical performance. Beneficial form its unique structural advantages, the optimized carbon nanofiber exhibits high electrochemical performance, including a specific capacitance of 181.96 F g−1 and maximum energy density of 25.27 Wh kg−1 for the power density of 91.07 W kg−1. This study examines a facile conventional route for producing carbon nanofiber from biomass Areca catechu husk in economical and efficient for electrode supercapacitor.

The desmutagenic activity of the water extract of Areca catechu L. on the mutagenicity induced by aflatoxin B1 (AFB1), N-methyl-N-nitro-N'-nitrosoguani-dine (MNNG), mitomycin C (MMC) and 4-nitroquinoline 1-oxide (4-NQO) was studied by using the SOS Chromotest with Escherichia coli PQ37. The inhibition rates of water extract of Areca catechu L. at concentration of 100μg/assay were 41.0%, 47%, 46%, and 32% against AFB1, MNNG, MMC and 4-NQO, respectively. The water extract of Areca catechu L. was separated into methanol soluble and methanol insoluble parts. The methanol insoluble part exhibited higher inhibition effect than the methanol soluble part against the mutagenic activities of MNNG. Step-wise fractionation of methanol insoluble part was done to obtain methanol, ethyl acetate and water fractions. Among these fractions, water fraction had the strongest inhibitory effect of 45.0% against mutagenicities of MNNG. The inhibition rates of aqueous fraction of methanol-insoluble from water extracted Areca catechu L. at concentrations of 1.61, 16.13, 161.29 and 322.58μg/mL were 12.0%, 24.0%, 47.5% and 62.0%, respectively. The water fraction showed the inhibitory effects with dose response against the mutagenic activity induced by MNNG.