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Page 58
| the nerves without dulling the mind. Kava kava was traditionally prepared not as a tea but as a fermented beverage. With song and ceremony, young girls with strong teeth chewed kava roots until they were reduced to a soft pulp, which they spat into wooden bowls, mixed with coconut milk and kneaded by hand. After hours of fermentation, the liquid was strained off and the result was a potent narcotic used in tribal ceremonies. |
| Polynesian tribes no longer chew and ferment their kava kava. Instead, they simply crush the roots, mix them with water or coconut milk and filter the liquid. The resulting beverage has a stimulating, tonic effect without being addictive. |
| Safety is a concern in any discussion of kava kava, for some herbal references dismiss the plant as potentially habit-forming, deservedly notorious and of unproven safety. However, in a report prepared for the Townsend Letter for Doctors, herbalist Kerry Bone reviewed the herb's pharmacology and concluded, |
| Kava is a safe stabilizing treatment for anxiety, which at normal therapeutic doses does not dampen alertness or interact with mild alcohol consumption. Unlike the benzodiazepine drugs, there is no risk of tolerance or addiction with kava. Its slight antidepressant activity makes it particularly suitable for the treatment of anxiety associated with minor forms of depression. Kava is one of the few safe skeletal muscle relaxants known in the plant kingdom. This property makes it useful for the treatment of nervous tension and conditions associated with skeletal muscle spasm and tension, such as headaches due to neck tension. Although pharmacological tests indicate that kava is not a sedative in the same sense as the anti-psychotic and benzodiazepine drugs, it is an excellent hypnotic for the treatment of mild insomnia. |
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