Kava

Kava (Piper methysticum) is a member of the pepper family. It is a hardy, slow-growing perennial that generally resembles other members of the family Piperaceae.

This attractive shrub can attain heights of more than 3 meters. The plant does not have many leaves, and those are thin, single, heart-shaped, alternate, petiolate, and 4 to 10 inches long and sometimes wider than they are long. Although Piper methysticum does flower, it is incapable of self-reproduction; its propagation is vegetative and solely due to human effort.

The rootstock is used for medicinal purposes. The rootstock is knotty, thick, and sometimes tuberous, with holes or cracks created by partial destruction of the inner tissue. In other words, the rootstock is often somewhat pithy. Lateral roots up to 3 meters long extend from the main rootstock.

Analysis of the composition of the dried kava rootstock indicates that it contains approximately 43 percent starch, 12 percent water, 3.2 percent simple sugars, 3.6 percent proteins, 3.2 percent minerals (primarily potassium), and 15 percent kavalactones.

On the basis of detailed analyses of kava's active ingredients (a laborious process spanning the past 110 years), many experts now believe the pharmacological activities of kava are due mostly, if not entirely, to the presence of kavalactones (also referred to as kava alphapyrones). These compounds are found in the fat-soluble resin of the root. Although the kavalactones are the primary active components, it must be pointed out that other components appear to contribute to the sedative and anxiolytic activities of kava, as in one study the sedative activity of a crude preparation was more effective than that of the isolated kavalactones . The kavalactone content of the root can vary between 3 and 20 percent. Therefore, for clinical use, preparations standardized for kavalactone content are preferred to crude preparations.

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