Thank you Chris and Judd for contributing to the conversation and adding your clarifications. That's the whole purpose of this thread is to get accurate definitions so we appreciate any and everything that we can have regarding the proper lexicon. Having a civil discussion is definitely good for these purposes!
Just for whatever it's worth, I came across these things regarding PNG kava:
From: Codex discussion paper on the development of a standard for kava: [in part]
"The kava plant varieties are select based on the traditional history of experience of safe use by each Pacific country with names in local vernacular languages of the country of origin: [...] Papua New Guinea Kava varieties (Kau kupwe from Baluan Island)"
Lebot's recent paper: "Detection of flavokavins (A, B, C) in cultivars of kava (Piper methysticum using high performance thin layer chromatography (HPTLC)- V. Lebot et al. / Food Chemistry (2014)
"In vitro studies have shown that FKB derived from roots of the cultivar "Isa" from Papua New Guinea is cytotoxic to human hepatoma HepG2 cells with, however, effects yet to be elucidated (Jhoo et al.,2006) [...] We have
analysed cultivar Isa from Papua New Guinea and confirm results obtained by Jhoo et al. (2006)."
"Morphological, phyotchemical & genetic variation in Hawaiian Cultivars...)", Lebot V., Johnston E., et al.
"If it is agreed that each different morphotype should correspond to a different cultivar, then kava in Hawai'i is represented by 13 cultivars plus three distinct morphotypes originating from Samoa, Pohnpei, and Papua New Guinea. [...]Morphotype no. 14 corresponding to cultivar Isa, originating from Papua New Guinea, appeared to be clearly distant from other morphotypes. [...] Chemotypes of the studied cultivars are quite similar and only two cultivars exhibit different chemotypes, these are 'Isa', originally from Papua New Guinea [...] However, cultivar 'Isa' from Papua New Guinea is morphologically distinct and also exhibits a distinct chemotype. [...] Cultivar 'Isa' from Papua New Guinea, appeared to be the most genetically distant from other accessions with 117 distinctive electromorphs. [...] APN #7 cultivated in Puna District; ISA: named variety originally from Papua New Guinea, cultivated at Alia Point Nursery. [...] However, the possibility also exists that leaves, or parts other than roots, may have economic potential as a source of DHK and DHM for phytopharmaceutical purposes. Cultivar 'Isa' from Papua New Guinea appears outstanding in this respect (KL = 5.8%).
["Morphological, phyotchemical & genetic variation in Hawaiian Cultivars...)", Lebot V., Johnston E., et al.]
"Kava: The Pacific Elixir"
Also, for any of you, you can find text from the "Kava: The Pacific Elixir" in regards to PNG kava.
Unfortunately, I lent my copy to a friend and don't have access to it right now, but you can see a lot of good in the below link and the attached image of Appendix B. which shows "Names of Kava in PNG" [though the list is
not complete and is continued on the next page which is not shown for free through Google books]:
http://books.google.com/books?id=wxTrQOP36NsC&pg=PA29&lpg=PA29&dq=papua new guinea kava&source=bl&ots=GgZlsM2wR8&sig=jVEpecV68RQ1gScHbHo1yISo468&hl=en&sa=X&ei=SxGlU9qpNtCHogSshoGACQ&ved=0CFYQ6AEwBg#v=onepage&q=papua new guinea kava&f=false
Have a wonderful weekend everyone.
