KAVA
Kava or kava kava (Piper methysticum: Latin 'pepper' and Latinized Greek 'intoxicating') is a plant in the pepper family, native to the Pacific Islands. The name kava is from Tongan and Marquesan, meaning 'bitter.’ Other names for kava include ʻawa (Hawaiʻi), ʻava (Samoa), yaqona or yagona (Fiji), sakau (Pohnpei), seka (Kosrae), and malok or malogu (parts of Vanuatu). Kava can refer to either the plant or a beverage made from its root. The beverage has sedative, anesthetic, and mild euphoriant properties. It is consumed throughout the Pacific Ocean cultures of Polynesia, including Hawaii and Vanuatu, Melanesia, some parts of Micronesia, such as Pohnpei and Kosrae.
Kava consists of sterile cultivars clonally propagated from its wild ancestor, Piper wichmanii. It originated in northern Vanuatu, where it was domesticated by farmers around 3,000 years ago through selective cultivation. Historically, the beverage was made from fresh kava; preparation from dry kava emerged in response to the efforts of Christian missionaries in the 18th and 19th centuries to prohibit the drinking of kava.
Its active compounds are known as kavalactones. Systematic reviews and meta-analyses conducted in the last decade have typically indicated a modest positive effect of kava on anxiety and generalized anxiety disorder, though the evidence is mixed and further research is frequently recommended.
Moderate consumption of kava in its traditional form, as a water-based suspension of kava roots, is considered by the World Health Organization to present an “acceptably low level of health risk.” However, consumption of kava extracts produced with organic solvents or excessive amounts of low-quality kava products may be linked to an increased risk of adverse health outcomes, including liver injury.
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