Well, again, it's not like he used to say "tudei is great" and now he says "tudei is bad"...
I don't think that's totally true. He writes about the social, cerimonial, and medicinal uses of kava. It may not have been popular for social situations it certainly was used for medicianl reasons. Here's what he says (or reports) about the medicinal uses of kava (many of which are tudei kava):
Kava is an important ingredient in the pharmacopoeia of many Pacific Islands societies. Zepernick (1972), for example, recorded numerous medical syndromes treated with kava-based preparations in traditional Polynesia (see also table 4.1). Knowledge and belief about the medicinal efficacy of kava still lead many island healers to prescribe its use to treat a variety of ailments and diseases. Medical science tries to find a logical relation between cause and effect to certify etiologic or symptomatic remedies, whereas traditional Pacific Island medicine seeks the causes of illness (often supernatural, primarily in the breaching of taboo) and then treats diseases with empirically tested folk medicines.
Table 4.1. Kava-based medicinal treatments in Polynesia
Condition
Medicinal treatment
Inflammation of the urogenital system
Drinking macerated stump and young kava shoots
Gonorrhea and chronic cystitis
Drinking prepared kava
Difficulties in urinating
Drinking macerated stump
Female puberty syndromes, weakness
Drinking masticated kava
Menstrual problems, dysmenorrhea
Drinking prepared kava
Vaginal prolapsus
Application of macerated kava
To provoke an abortion
Kava leaves in the vagina
Migraine related to women’s sicknesses
Drinking masticated kava
Headaches
Masticated root tissues, eaten or drunk as an infusion
General weakness Chills
Drinking of masticated, macerated kava diluted with water and boiled
Chills
Drinking macerated kava; fumigation with the leaves
Chills and sleeping problems
Drinking of masticated, macerated kava diluted in water and boiled
General treatment of diseases
Fumigation with the leaves
To prevent infection
Drinking of masticated kava
Rheumatism
Drinking of macerated stump
Weight gain
Drinking of macerated stump
Gastrointestinal upsets
Drinking of macerated stump mixed with other medicinal plants
Irritation of the respiratory tract and asthma
Drinking of macerated stump
Pulmonary pains
Drinking masticated kava
Tuberculosis
Drinking juice extracted from the stump
Leprosy
External application of masticated stump
Skin diseases
Application of masticated stump in a poultice
Certain skin diseases
Kava cure to cause desquamations; at the end of the cure, new healthy skin is formed.
To prevent suppuration
Application of masticated stump in a poultice
To calm nervous children
Drinking of kava drink prepared from the nene variety
* * *
Source: Lebot and Cabalion 1986, after: Aitken 1930; Degener 1945a, 1945b; Handy 1940; Handy, Pukui, and Livermore 1934; Hansel 1968; Hansel, Weiss, and Schmidt 1966; Steinmetz 1960; and Titcomb 1948.
Recent research indicates that the chemical properties of kavalactones in the rootstock of kava and alkaloids in the leaves may explain much of its usefulness in traditional medicine, although not all its applications can be accounted for scientifically (e.g., those for menstrual ailments). For example, the bactericidal or bacteriostatic activity of kavalactones underlies kava’s reputation as a remedy for urogenital infections. Its traditionally perceived analgesic properties make it a common remedy for various aches and pains. Its diuretic effects may relieve symptoms of gonorrhea. Traditional uses of the plant as a contraceptive, abortifacient, or stimulant remain to be scientifically verified and explained, perhaps by research to identify physiologically active compounds other than kavalactones. Some reliance on kava within folk medicinal systems no doubt reflects its symbolic rather than chemical attributes. Use of kava to induce women’s breast milk flow, for example, may relate to the general symbolic appreciation of kava as a fertile fluid (see chapter 5). We summarize some of the traditional medicinal uses of kava by region below.
New Guinea
In Irian Jaya, the internal part of P. methysticum bark is used for toothache (Aufenanger and Höltker 1940). In Papua New Guinea, scraped bark and masticated roots are used to relieve sore throats, and the juice from the leaves is used to treat cuts and is imbibed as a general tonic (Holdsworth 1977). Women drink fresh masticated kava root as an anesthetic when they are being tattooed. Women in some areas of this country also reportedly drink large quantities when they are pregnant, especially just before delivery, to stimulate milk production (Steinmetz 1960).
Vanuatu
The soporific properties of kava have been known in Vanuatu for many generations. Garanger (1972) provides some remarkable evidence of this. Archaeological excavation of the burial site of Roy Mata, a chief who reigned over the Shepherd Islands and Efate in the thirteenth century, uncovered male skeletons in positions suggesting that they were buried alive while in a peaceful state of mind, whereas the position of associated female skeletons suggests they put up a struggle. According to oral tradition, the men interred alive were under the influence of kava but their wives were not allowed the soporific potion.
Today on Mota Lava, in the Banks Islands of Vanuatu, kava is used in a drink to treat constipation. It is also used to treat conjunctivitis: the eyes are washed with water mixed with juice squeezed from the leaves (Vienne 1981).
In Melsisi, on Pentecost, juice expressed from kava leaves is dropped into the ears to treat earache (Lebot, field observations, 1986). A. Walter (personal communication, 1987) noted a similar use of kava in Vansemakul, another Apma-speaking village in the same area. Also on Pentecost, a plaster made from heated and pounded kava leaves is applied to the abdomen to relieve an upset stomach. For feverish coughing, a handful of bark is ground Up in a small amount of water, which the patient drinks in small doses. To relieve sickness characterized by fever followed by asthenia, sufferers drink half a glass of juice extracted from kava leaves. To burst a boil, people grind kava leaves and heat them over fire. The warm leaves are then pressed, and the juice obtained is applied to the boil, which is also covered with the pulverized kava leaves held in place by another leaf. For headaches, hot leaves are placed on the head. A sickness known in the Apma region bears a generic name of kava (sini); symptoms include swollen legs followed by fever. Sini is treated by bathing with a maceration of four leaves from the sini bo cultivar ground in a bowl of water. A poultice made from four sini bo leaves heated in the fire is also applied to swollen legs associated with a similar illness (Lebot and Cabalion 1986).
On Tongoa, to treat general indisposition and lack of energy, juice is extracted from ground kava leaves, mixed in cold water, and applied by massage to the body.
On Erromango, a complex preparation containing kava is reputed to act against both asthma and tuberculosis (see Lebot and Cabalion 1986). The ingredients of the asthma remedy include leaves of a Compositae (Crassocephalum crepidioides), locally referred to as samdoo; a Papilionaceae (Abrus precatorius) called tamsi; two cultivars of a Musaceae (Heliconia indica, var. indicd), mevong and mevong netukus; and kava, called naghave (or nagave according to Lynch 1983). These leaves are pressed and the juice extracted and drunk. The sick person is restricted to a salt-free diet (no sea water) throughout the course of treatment. This medication is not administered to pregnant or menstruating women. On Tanna, however, juice extracted from the leaves of kava and a Cyperaceae species (Fimbristylis cymosa) is given to pregnant women who are approaching their delivery date, “when the baby has to turn round,†to be sure it presents itself favorably for birth.
There are Erromangan tales of a kava syndrome called naghave, attributed to sorcery performed with various leaves. The symptoms of the illness are blurred vision and dizziness resembling those of an overdose of kava (these symptoms could simply result from jaundice). In 1982, two people in the southwest of the island still knew the method of casting this spell. More than ten local plants are used in preparing various remedies for kava sickness. There is also a kava sickness in New Guinea (Astrolabe Bay), referred to as kial (kava). Kial is purported to have a special effect on the backbone; old people who walk with a hunch prematurely are said to have either ringworm or kial sickness (Hagen 1899).
Fiji
In the early part of this century, Rougier (1907) recorded several medicinal uses of kava in Fiji. For example, a sickness characterized by a pain inside the head and both ears associated with “blurred vision†that “sometimes disappears at high tide, and in other cases at sunset,†was treated with various remedies, one of which contained leaves of Ipomoea peltata and kava. Rougier also reported that “the best sedative drug is a draught prepared by scraping and pounding the kava root,†and that “there were various means of contraception, one of which was masticating and swallowing kava leaves.â€
According to Degener (1949; see also Zepernick 1972), Fijians also soften kava leaves in a fire and apply these as a poultice against suppurations. Hocart (1929) noted the use of kava in a treatment for “convalescence.†H. B. Parham (1939) reported that kava is considered to be a powerful diaphoretic. Fijian women regard it as a fortifying drink, laxative, and diuretic. In pregnancy, the absorption of small quantities of kava is said to facilitate delivery. In Fiji as in parts of New Guinea, doses of kava are thought to favor the production of milk. The absorption of several cups of kava reportedly helps clear up initial stages of diarrhea (Thomson 1908; Steinmetz 1960; Sterly 1970). On the Polynesian island of Rotuma, which politically is part of Fiji, kava is consumed to control asthma (Manner and Bryant 1988).
Polynesia
In Tahiti, a drink made from masticated kava rootstock was believed to be an effective remedy for gonorrhea (Sterly 1970; Maclet and Barrau 1959; Steinmetz 1960). In the Cook Islands, kava is still consumed to treat urinary tract problems (mimi), probably because of its diuretic action (Whistler 1990). In American Samoa, kava is also used against gonorrhea (MacCuddin 1974). The medicinal potion includes four small kava roots ground together with 12 chili peppers (Capsicum annuum), 24 leaves of a native tree (Colubrina asiatica), and the pith of the sweet orange tree (Citrus sinensis). The extracted juice is administered orally.
Another kava remedy is used in American Samoa to cure a urinary infection, supposedly caused by the spirit of a dead person, the symptoms of which are a distended bladder, a small emission of urine, and painful micturition (the illness probably results from a gonococcus infection, whose origin is generously attributed to the spirits of the dead). Therapy for this malady involves scraping the internal bark of a kava stalk, extracting the juice, mixing it with the juice of a dried Pandanus species root, and adding water to make a concoction that the patient drinks.
Kava is also utilized in the relief of a medical syndrome comprised of ocular pains, difficulty in opening the eyes, and a feeling of having a swollen head, accompanied by a cold sweat, dizziness, and numbing of the legs. Eight kava leaves are ground, placed in a piece of clean cloth, and strained into a glass of water. The mixture is then imbibed by the sick person.
In Samoa, for an injury caused by a fish spine, a dried kava root is burned. A dry coconut shell is placed over the embers, allowing the smoke to escape through the opened “eyes†of the nut, and the injury is exposed to the escaping smoke.
Pohnpei
Islanders here state that kava drinking generally is beneficial to their health. They also use it as a prophylactic against gonorrhea, and one report states that they formerly employed kava as an abortifacient (Riesenberg 1968).