Shulgin 1973 article on kavalactones and analogues

[bobarctor]

Kava-kava is the name given to a drink prepared from the rhizomes of the plant, Piper methysticum. The generic name Piper comes from the Latin for pepper, and the species methysticum from the Greek μ θ ν σ τ ι κ ο ζ meaning intoxicant. It has thus become widely known as the intoxicating or narcotic pepper, or Rauschpfeffer.

http://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/data-and-analysis/bulletin/bulletin_1973-01-01_2_page008.html

 

[Gourmet Hawaiian Kava]

Cool article, I know only 1 person from this article and he helped Dr. Lebot when Lebot got into it. It shows how little they knew back then but it also shows that they did study it and had some knowledge of it. Thanks for sharing it with us, aloha.

Chris

 

[bobarctor]

Yes, even if they were making incorrect assumptions it's interesting to track the history of the 'Awa not only geographically, but also when it comes to the speculations that laid the groundwork for the rest of our work now. Every little info helps, be it in books, some forgotten articke or tacit knowledge of cultivars is what makes Kava so exciting (except for the fact that' a very nice way to get together now and then)

 

[Gourmet Hawaiian Kava]

You are correct, it is the cultivars that makes kava so exciting and it is the Pacific people that have grown kava for so long that made these cultivars through selective cultivation, they weeded out the wild kava (Piper Witchmanii) Spelling??? and they kind of created the noble varieties of kava that the world likes to drink, the wild or tuday kava is not used for drinking, only for medicine and even then very rarely.
It is interesting to note that Dr. Lebot did some genetic research on kava throughout the Pacific, even here in Hawaii and it shows that they all came from Vanuatu, they have the same genetic markers, so Dr. Lebot postulates that all the kava came from Vanuatu at one time or another.
And in Hawaiian literature it talks about a kava called "Mokihana" we have yet to find that kava, i would love to, the way it is described it sounds like it would be a good one. Aloha.

Chris