Kava: The Pacific Elixir

The Definitive Guide to Its Ethnobotany, History, and Chemistry

Vincent Lebot, Mark Merlin, Lamont Lindstrom

• Publisher: Healing Arts Press
• Year: 1997
• Print ISBN:
  9780892817269
• eBook ISBN:
  9781620550335
• Topic: Medicine
• Subtopic: Alternative & Complementary Medicine

• The most comprehensive book ever written on nature's most effective stress-relieving plant.

• First paperback edition of the classic comprehensive text originally published by Yale University Press.

This complete guide to kava summarizes the literature and research on a plant that is now considered comparable or superior to anti-stress prescription drugs, and describes its use in the religious, political, and economic life of the Pacific islands for centuries. Beyond its soporific qualities kava is also used throughout the the Pacific as an analgesic, a diuretic, and an anesthetic. There is even evidence suggesting it is effective in the treatment of asthma, tuberculosis, and venereal disease. Exhaustively researched, Kava: The Pacific Elixir offers an extensive survey of this amazing plant from the perspective of the horticulturist, the ethnobotanist, and the pharmacologist.

Table of contents

• Cover Image
• Title Page
• Acknowledgments
• Table of Contents
• Chapter 1. Introduction
• Chapter 2. Botany: Morphology, Biogeography, and Origin of the Species
• Chapter 3. Chemistry: Active Principles and Their Effects
• Chapter 4. Ethnobotany: Cultivation, Classification, Preparation, and Medicinal Use
• Chapter 5. Anthropology: The Cultural Significance and Social Uses of Kava
• Chapter 6. Economics: Kava as a Cash Crop
• Chapter 7. Kava: A World Drug?
• Appendix A. Geographical Distribution of Past and Present Kava Use
• Appendix B. Names for Kava in New Guinea
• Appendix C. Names for Kava in Vanuatu
• Appendix D. Piper wichmannii and Piper methysticum Morphotypes
• Appendix E. Chemotypes, Morphotypes, and Zymotypes of Wild and Cultivated Forms of Kava
• Appendix F. Most Common Vanuatu Cultivars by Geographical Region
• Bibliography
• For further reading in Ethnobotany ...
• About the Authors
• About Inner Traditions • Bear & Company
• Books of Related Interest
• Copyright & Permissions
• Index