What is a lactone?

[Edward]

Well fellas, I have just about managed not to pee myself tonight. Thanks for starting a serious thread Mr B. I have to go to bed as I am up at 05.15 which means nothing to any of you as I am probably somewhere between 5 and 8 hours away from you! See you all soon and happy krunking

 

[violet]

Haha does anyone have any actual info regarding this ?

What specifically are you looking for in relation to lactones? For the purpose of making medicine (re the linked article), kava lactones are easily extracted with alcohol and other strong solvents. Solvents also remove other constituents such as chalcones and alkaloids which may be undesirable. It is for this reason we recommend water extraction methods for making kava consumable. Water extracted kava also contains glutathione, which is hepatoprotective and may be a contributor to the historical and enduring safe use of kava in traditional societies.

 

[Zac Imiola (Herbalist)]

Yeah I was considering making my own tincture for easy use, specifically a nene one for quick calm down times... I would use alchohol extraction but making it a very high water content as well. So a good 80 proof alchohol, so they're is still 60 % room for water solubles, thinking of even kneading the kava into the alchohol and using unnecessary amounts to ensure high potency. I don't plan on dissolving the alchohol or anything

 

[Zac Imiola (Herbalist)]

Really tho? Kava has glutathione in it ???? Wow that's awesome cause increased production of that is ESSENTIAL for detoxing of heavy metals and it's our body's main antioxidant detoxer.

 

[Zac Imiola (Herbalist)]

Obviously not going to use 90 % alchohol for the tincture.
Ive never been a fan of tinctures but I feel like if done right they're nice way to dose quick ... mixed with water( not under the tongue )

 

[violet]

It's the intrinsic properties of the alcohol that do the extracting, so you would still be pulling out the undesirables. Glutathione is water soluble, and there are a plethora of plants that have it. You would probably be much better off using a dehydrated water extraction of Nene (Instant Nene) or for quick dosing some of the other no prep products such as PK Extracts, Ozia Kava Candy, Kalm with Kava drink concentrate, etc.

 

[Zac Imiola (Herbalist)]

What undesirables would I pull out that I wouldn't get from toss and washing in a jam ?
Or ingesting micro which definitley would still contain other chemicals, unless by some wierd plant thing that all of these said undesirables are only in the hard fibers?

 

[violet]

Check out this discussion: How long does Kava take to Extract?

 

[Zac Imiola (Herbalist)]

So ultimately you recomend against it in general ?. Like I said I've never been a fan of extracts so if there's reason against it I'll take it lol

 

[verticity]

Lactones look like this:

Cyclic: the atoms form a ring
"Ester" refers to the oxygen double-bonded to the carbon, and the other single-bonded oxygen next to it.
Ester:

The "R"s in the picture refer to any combination of carbon and hydrogen atoms.

"1-oxacycloalkan-2-one structure" - The single bonded oxygen is at position 1 ("1-oxa"). There is a ring ("cyclo") of some combination of carbon and hydrogen atoms ("alkan"), next to an oxygen double bonded to a carbon ("2-one" -- note "one" is not the number 1, but is a suffix indicating a double bonded oxygen, as in "ketone" or "acetone"--or "lactone" for that matter)

So here is kavain, a kavalactone. You can see it is a cyclic ester, with a bunch of stuff hanging off (or your could say the "ring" is complicated) characteristic of a kava-lactone: