HERBS for HEALTH

Enlarge Image Image Gallery Piper methysticum has been the basis of religious and social rituals in the South Pacific for hundreds of years. Photography by steven foster

Hot on the heels of St.-John’s-wort’s popularity in treating depression, a new herbal star has risen to ease another modern woe: anxiety.

Kava, also called kava-kava, is made from the rootstock of a South Pacific plant, Piper methysticum. Used for hundreds of years in religious and social rituals of the Pacific Islands, kava is a relative newcomer to the United States—with a number of clinical studies confirming its use in relieving stress.

Kava has been known to Westerners since 1768, when Daniel Carl Solander, a botanist on Captain James Cook’s first expedition around the world, found a plant in the South Pacific he called “Piper inebrians.” That name passed into ­obscurity as a footnote in a journal, along with the notation, “The expressed juice of this plant they drink to intoxicate themselves.”

Kava’s scientific moniker, Piper methysticum Forst., comes from Johann Georg Adam Forster, who accompanied Cook on his second expedition around the world from 1772 to 1775. Forster published the name Piper methysticum in a book that appeared in 1786.

What is kava?

Piper methysticum is in the genus Piper in the pepper family (Piperaceae), the group to which black pepper (Piper ­nigrum) belongs. Piper is a large plant group, whose more than 1,000 species include shrubs, high-climbing woody vines, and even small trees. Kava is a ­highly variable shrublike herb that usually grows to about 6 feet but can reach 20 feet given lush soil and good sunlight. The bright green, heart-shaped leaves are 6 to 8 inches long. Its small flower spikes are sterile.

Kava plants must be propagated by dividing the roots. The succulent, thick stems have strongly swollen nodes, which vary in color from green to black. More than a dozen types of kava are known in Hawaii, at least five in Fiji, several in New Guinea, and nine in Samoa. On the islands of Vanuatu, where kava is heavily used, the indigenous people have identified more than seventy varieties.

Cultural significance

Based on more than 3,000 years of use, Polynesian islanders have ensured the plant’s survival by carefully preserving varieties whose active ingredients are ­particularly flavorful and strong. Kava is not known to occur in the wild. It is a cultigen, a plant selected and grown for the benefit of humans. Because it does not produce viable seed, it must be propagated vegetatively.

Sometimes called “the water of life,” kava is deeply entwined with cultural and spiritual traditions in the South Pacific, where the herb has been used for centuries to make a ceremonial beverage. Origin myths honor kava’s role in sexuality, fertility, and regeneration. Ceremonial kava drinking evokes fellowship and symbolizes the strength and continuity of social harmony.

Kava’s cultural role has been likened to that of red wine in France, though kava takes on a much deeper spiritual significance.