Piper Methysticum
Common Kava kava, 'awa. And over a thousand other names. Most kava people have dis-Names tinct names for each of the many varieties of kava that they grow, usually fifty or more. Figure that there are three hundred languages in Indonesian New Guinea alone, and at least that many in the rest of Melanesia, and scores more in Micronesia and Polynesia. Just multiply fifty by five hundred.
Related Species Piper betle, the leaf used to "wrap betel nut; Piper nigrum, black pepper; Piper cubeba, cubeb.
Taxonomy The pepper family, Piperaceae. Pantropical: small trees, woody shrubs, and herbs, mostly in rain forests. Black pepper has been a major cargo and motivator of the spice trade for at least three thousand years.
Part Used The ground rootstock.
Chemistry Details of the chemistry of the active constituents of kava have recently been ex plored by Lebot and Levesque. They divide the active ingredients into two groups that they call the "major kavalactones" and the "minor kavalactones." The major kavalactones account for 96 percent of the total lipids, and Lebot and Levesque believe they fully determine the wide spectrum of effects experienced from ingestion of various kavas.
The six major kavalactones are
1. demethoxy-yangolin (DMY);
2. dihydrokavain (DHK);
3.yangonin (Y);
5. dihydromethysticin (DHM);
6. methysticin (M).
Kavalactones are sesquiterpenes. They have a phenol ring connected to a saturated 5-lactone six-atom ring through two intermediary carbons with or without a double bond. Kavain is ome ome
CI 1
CI 1
Cll with a double bond between C7-C8. Substitutions on the phenol ring, mostly methoxy groups, and the shifting double bond between C7-C8 and C5-C6 account for most of the kavalactones. In methysticin, a methoxy group joins together with a hydroxyl group to make an O-CH2O bridge between Cn and C12.
Lebot and Levesque analyzed cultivated varieties of kava from throughout Oceania, and discovered that they could classify the many chemotypes by coding the relative abundance of each of the six major kavalactones. For example, chemotype 521634 contains primarily (5) DHM; (2) DHK; and (1) DMY, in that order, the other three lactones present in smaller quantities. Further, they found that each chemotype, or chemo-genus, determined by the three most abundant kavalactones, produced physiological effects distinct from the other chemotypes. Combining the relative abundances of the chemotype code with absolute content percentages, the authors were able to map the history of the domestication and differentiation of the various chemical races of the kava plant. Their research showed that the evolution of Piper methysticum has been guided not by a struggle for existence but by human beings seeking distinct highs from the effects of eating the rootstocks.
Not surprisingly, the plant people with whom these admirable scientists studied already had names for the different chemotypes, recognized them, used some for ceremonial occasions, others for medicinal purposes, and others for everyday drinking. And they cloned and traded them.
Effects Serenity, well-being. Kava is an emotional leveler. It relieves fatigue and is mildly stimulating mentally. In moderate doses kava is a muscle relaxant, especially for the lower body. In larger doses kava is a soporific, but without dulling the consciousness. Haifa coconut shell of strong kava will put a drinker to sleep within half an hour.
Where can you get a better night's sleep than with kava?
Kava drinkers prefer softened light and quiet. Mellowness.
The Ally A doctor of our path could base her whole practice on kava, swimming with energies of the heart, adjusting, finding words, seeking the common ground, sharing and bringing together. Common ground like a warm breeze, trade winds, turquoise water, a sunken tank rusting on a coral reef.
The Plant Piper methysticum is derived from a wild plant still found in Melanesia, Piper wich-mannii. Kava is a sterile cultivar, and was domesticated by vegetative propagation from a limited genetic base of Piper wichmannii, probably on Vanuatu. Lebot, Merlin, and Lindstrom, in Kava, the Pacific Drug, write that the domestication probably is only 3,000 or 3,500 years old, and present both chromosomal and linguistic evidence to support their thesis.
Piper unchmannii has the chemotype code 521634, nearly opposite of the chemo-type of the most sought-after variety of kava, 426135. The process of breeding this variety would necessitate detecting the difference between 521634 and 521643 in one's garden, and then cloning off of 521643 for another garden. And perhaps in the new garden finding, purely by subjective effects, a clone that has mutated to 526341, and then cloning yet another garden from that plant. And so on.
Mathematically, the number of codable chemotypes by Lebot's system is P(£) = 6! = 720. Actually, there is very little difference between clones varying only in the minority lactones — the first three components tend to typify a class. That would be P( 1) = 120. Representatives of many, if not most, of these intermediates still exist and are still cultivated. Such an accomplishment in a few millennia of clonal selection bespeaks the skill and sensitivity of the Pacific Islanders as plant doctors.
Chemistry Kava people consider plant varieties with a high percentage of K, kavain, and a low percentage of DHM, dihydromethysticin, to induce the most desirable psy-choactive effects. Plants that are high in DHM are usually avoided, as the effects are said to be long-lasting and to cause nausea. All six of the major kavalactones are psychoactive, and all six differ in their psychoactive properties and also in their pharmacokinetics, the speed of the onset of effects and the duration of the effects. Moreover, it is likely that the effects of the various kavalactones are syn-ergistic, adding even more complexity to the various properties of the many cultivated varieties of Piper methysticum.
The Ally Used for camaraderie, and for divination. Used to find words, to find a song, or to get advice. The seeker retires to a quiet place and drinks kava. Then listens. Maybe the words will come from a bird, maybe the words will come from the trades in the palm branches. Sometimes the words will come from your ancestors. For that reason kava is often drunk in burial grounds.
Traditionally, the fresh root is chewed for five or ten minutes to soften and separate the fibers. The whole mass is spat out onto some leaves, and more root is chewed. This is usually done in a group. In the past, on some islands, such as Samoa, this task had to be performed by a bare-breasted virgin girl, bedecked with flowers and sitting cross-legged on a mat.
Mostly though, what has always been sought are strong young jaws that still have all their teeth. But virgin girls or boys lacking, the older men will sit and chew. Ritual requirement for the young to chew kava for their elders has been outlawed on most of the Pacific Islands. Indeed, due to zealous Christian missionaries who confuse faith with culture, the mastication of kava has been almost completely replaced by pounding, where kava has not been banned completely. On one island whose inhabitants were converted by Seventh Day Adventists, the kava plant has been eradicated entirely: rooted up, gone. One of the results of the suppression of kava drinking is the rise in alcohol consumption. Alcohol and kava are almost never mixed — their natures are so opposite, despite the similarity of the staggering characteristic of both inebriations. Kava is the plant of peace, of quiet speech or no speech at all, while alcohol (according to the Islanders) brings out aggression and boisterousness.
Sometimes I think that history is a war of poisons, and that bipedal homi-nids are mere pawns and soldiers, mouthing whatever slogans orpropa-ganda are current, but ignorant of the designs and strategies of the true plant generals who direct the action from a realm beyond our usual ken.
The juice of the softened masses of root is squeezed out several times. Kavalac-tones are resins and insoluble in water: the chewing creates an emulsion. This is the finest kava. It is said to clear the head, to relax the body, to ease sorrows, and to sharpen vision, hearing, and memory.
Anaphrodisiac. "Boys never want girls after kava." Kava as petit mort, a "little death," obviating the need for sexual relations.
A shrub with heart-shaped leaves. The rootstock grows quickly and is ready to harvest in as little as three years. If left to grow, kava can exceed heights often feet.
Associated with exchange. Gifts. Communication between realms. Exchanges between social classes. Congress with the dead.
Necessary for any business deal: a large kava bowl on wooden legs in the general store for the customers.
For conflict resolution or domestic quarrels. Kava is like ska Pastora this way, but without the bright spotlight on "depth-truth," or like MDMA, but without the intensity of "depth-emotion."
Third parties will sometimes try to make feuding families drink kava together so that they will talk and negotiate. Gifts of fine kava cultivars are given to seal the agreement.
In kava bars, large mechanical meat-grinders are used to mash up the root. The juice is strained and sometimes diluted with water, which can make it look muddy.
Poesis The kavalactones are lipophilic resins. It was once believed that the chewing of the kava root set up enzymatic reactions that led to fermentation. As Louis Lewin stated, "This is false in every respect." The purpose of the chewing is to release the resins into an emulsion. The resins could easily be extracted with oils or organic solvents.
In the United States, unless you grow your own Piper methysticum, the best you can do is to buy the dried root or root powder at an herb store with good connections. (Growing kava, incidentally, is not difficult, but, except in Florida, requires a greenhouse.) One herbalist I spoke with boiled the root in coconut milk, surmising, correctly, that the fats in the coconut milk would extract the lactones.
Effects The Plant
The Ally WowTaken
But I find boiled coconut milk thick and unappetizing. Most Pacific Islanders now use dried root, and simply make their kava by pounding the dried root with some cold water, squeezing it out, and then repeating the procedure.
My own kava technique varies, depending on whether I have root or powder. Dried root stores better than does powder, and as I have no way of knowing how old the material in question is, as it has passed through a number of middlemen, I try to buy root. It usually comes coarsely chopped. One strong dose is half an ounce of chopped, dried root. I grind the root into a coarse powder in that most useful of machines for a plant doctor, an electric coffee grinder. Instead of just whisking the powder up with water as is traditional, I sometimes add a tablespoon or two of cream to the ground root, along with the contents of a lecithin
piper methysticum capsule (about 1,000 milligrams). Grind this mixture well in a bowl, add one-quarter cup of water, and stir with a whisk or an eggbeater until it thickens into an emulsion. Strain through a fine wire jelly strainer, and press the emulsion out with a spoon or your fingers. Return the mass of root to the bowl, add another half cup of cold water, and whisk some more. Strain as before. Drink the filtrate. I get enough to fill a coconut shell cup. If you want to be ritualistic, hold the coconut shell with both hands and drink it all in a single draught.
With powdered kava, of course, you can skip the grinding. Unless you are lucky enough to get very good kava, you will probably want a second shell in forty-five minutes or in an hour or two.
Try to develop a personal relationship with the kava buyer at your local herb store. Maybe she drinks kava already. Stress the importance of finding a good cultivar: for example, white kava is preferable to black kava. Try to get the buyer to send the word on up the chain of command that it's better to pay a little more and get better kava. One store I saw was selling leaf instead of root, which is, for our purposes, useless.
See if you can make a deal to buy in quantity. Then write to your congressional and senatorial representatives and tell them to keep the FDA out of the herb stores.
Effects Immediate numbness in the mouth. Kava is a very effective local anesthetic, rivaling cocaine. Ethanolphilics and other detractors say that kava "tastes like dirt." Perhaps. But if dirt, it is clean dirt, on the green side, and somewhat peppery and bitter.
In larger doses kava affects balance and motor equilibrium, dilates the pupils, and alters perception of depth and distance:
changes in spatial relativity, like reaching for a doorknob but finding the door is clear across the room
The Plant The dried root contains 3 to 20 percent kavalactones, depending on the variety, with 15 percent about average. One gram, or a gram and a half, of resin is a strong dose. Effects last from two to eight hours.
There is no kavain in the leaves. Ascorbic acid in the leaves would quickly reduce the double bond between the two carbon atoms joining the phenyl group with the lactone ring.
The Ally Kava is often associated with semen. At traditional all-male kava banquets ribald jokes and double entendres abound.
"Hey, have some of my kava."
"That new woman, I think I'll give her some kava.
In one story, the kava shoot is a penis that copulates with a woman who happens to step over it. She becomes a plant person. And it spreads around from there, until finally everyone on the island is a plant person.
Hybrids, part human being, part kava kava.
Sometimes the plant is female: like breast milk. Milk with a female smell, the scent of female genitalia. Milk for adults as breast milk is for infants, we being children in relation to the great power beyond. Image of the nourishing, the milk of the dead sister — the plant that sprouted from her corpse. Ghost nourishment.
Sometimes the plant is bisexual.
Effects "Noise and light spoil the kava."
Pharmacology The psychopharmacology is poorly understood. Kavalactones probably reduce spinal rather than cerebral activity.
Kava acts as a hypnotic in moderate or large doses, particularly strains high in DHK and DHM. Both DHK and DHM are more powerful as analgesics than aspirin.
It was noticed that no yeasts, bacteria, or fungi attack kava, so kavalactones are antimycotic. Kavalactones are also diuretics, anticonvulsants, spasmolytics, and local anesthetics. In folk medicine kava is used to treat gonorrhea, menstrual cramps, epilepsy, muscle aches, toothaches, sore throat, and many other ailments.
The Plant Smuggled onto the island by two women in their vaginas, hence the characteristic odor of the drink. Others say it sprouted from the semen of a dead kangaroo.
In many Pacific Island languages kava or 'awa also means "bitter" and is used to mean "poison." Being under the effects of kava is to be "poisoned by kava."
Tools Grinding stones. Carved kava cups. Coconut shells.
Toxicology Kavalactones can attach to proteins in the skin to form allergens, and in people prone to allergies, heavy and sustained use of kava can cause scleroderma, "alligator skin," or even lesions. The condition disappears when kava consumption is decreased.
An anonymous paper reported that kavalactones concentrate in the liver and cause damage, but this has not been substantiated. One Australian scientist has implicated kava in Aboriginal health problems, including weight loss, liver problems, shortness of breath, and skin rash. The problems are serious enough to require more study, but it is not clear what part kava plays, as many of the same persons drinking "excessive" amounts of kava had previously been abusers of alcohol.
In the Pacific Islands, one half of the population (the men) have been consuming kava for centuries, while the other half (the women) have not. This is a made-to-order epidemiological study. No known health problems have been found that correlate with these two easily recognized and easily trackable groups.
Matters Kava has been (and is) threatened by missionaries and alcohol, but seems to be of State making a comeback, even flourishing, on some islands. The missionaries, even and Liberty the most liberal, were repelled by the chewing and spitting, which they considered unhygienic. Beyond that, they understood the importance of the kava ceremony to the traditional culture, and thus considered kava an impediment to the conversion of the islanders to the One True God.
Speaking of which, Marxist sociologists criticize the use of kava on the grounds that it creates a false goodwill between classes that, in a state of movement and economic difFerentiation, ought properly to be at each other's throats. This remnant of the old apocalyptic millenarian faith is against any half-measures or compensations, against any opiates or palliatives, believing that only by things getting worse will the Revolution come to save us.
They may be right, except for the part about saving. And the part about Revolution.
Class PACIFICA: Peace-making, bringing peace.
Lewin included kava in his class hypnotica; Schultes and Hofmann classified kava as a narcotic and hypnotic. We place it on the path between the narcotics and thanatopathia: sharing of both the euphoria of the narcotics and the mental alertness and moral calm of tobacco.
A benevolent ally to abate craving, a poison to subdue poisons.
A moral peace: peace in body, peace in mind, the peace of twilight and evening, the Prince of Peace —
kava.
Was this article helpful?