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Did Dr. Vincent Lebot ever identify the orange substance in the acetone test?

dragonaut

dragonaut

Kava Curious
Hi everyone, this is my first post but I have been lurking around for a while. I have become increasingly interested in the acetone test that Dr. Lebot developed and people use here (just tried it myself two days ago, GKE Tanna Marang Marang gave a nice lemon yellow).

I saw a video from 2013 where Dr. Lebot describes the test and says that they are currently working on identifying the compound(s) responsible for the color change - does anyone know if he succeeded? I am a medicinal chemist with some experience in ID'ing new compounds, so this is of academic interest to me :) I also think that proper identification could help with improving the "at home" test and/or understand tudei toxicity.

Also, is anyone in contact with Dr. Lebot and is there a current email address to reach him on?

Thanks.
 
Groggy

Groggy

Kava aficionado
Admin
Welcome to the forum :) - The acetone test is not my forte, but I am sure someone will come along with a lot more experience in that department.
 
kavadude

kavadude

❦ॐ tanuki tamer
I don't believe it has yet been identified. Maybe you can do it for us :)

edit: we do know, however, that flavokawain B is not responsible for the color change
 
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TheKavaSociety

TheKavaSociety

New Zealand
Kava Vendor
verticity said:
Did you know Dr. Lebot is scientific coordinator of SPYN: The South Pacific Yam Network?
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Cool. :) I travelled to one of the Pacific island-states last week and had a lot of yam and taro. Good to see that Vinc is not only working on kava, but also helping the islanders to increase their yam and taro production!
 
verticity

verticity

I'm interested in things
Henry said:
Cool. :) I travelled to one of the Pacific island-states last week and had a lot of yam and taro. Good to see that Vinc is not only working on kava, but also helping the islanders to increase their yam and taro production!
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Yes, actually looking at his publications it looks like the majority of his work is on food root crops, not kava.
 
verticity

verticity

I'm interested in things
So, all his work with food crops might explain why identifying the "orange" tudei molecule may not have been such a high priority for him.
 
verticity

verticity

I'm interested in things
dragonaut said:
... I am a medicinal chemist with some experience in ID'ing new compounds, so this is of academic interest to me :) I also think that proper identification could help with improving the "at home" test and/or understand tudei toxicity.....
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Dude, if you have access to a GC-MS that would be awesome... you could publish something on that.. :)
 
kavamedicine

kavamedicine

Kava Curious
Welcome to the forum, dragonaut. You mentioned that the GKE Marang-Marang was yellow in your test, meaning not Tudei-adulterated. I am curious as to whether you have also tested the GKE Tanna Kaolik. Both of these Kavas were listed as "suspect" by Deleted User a few years ago, as the acetone tests he (or someone else) did produced a yellow-orange. This - together with a few reports on this forum of people having suspicious "Tudei-like" reactions to it - caused me to steer clear of the Marang Marang. I wonder, however, if the blend may somehow now be "purer" than a few years ago due to stricter standards, etc. I recently went through a 250g of Tanna Kaolik from GKE and felt no "Tudei-like" effects whatsoever; in fact (keeping in mind that I am no Kava expert), it feels, looks and smells to me to be a very clean, noble Kava. Therefore I would be interested to know if you have tested a recent batch yourself and if so, what the results were.
 
dragonaut

dragonaut

Kava Curious
kavamedicine said:
Welcome to the forum, dragonaut. You mentioned that the GKE Marang-Marang was yellow in your test, meaning not Tudei-adulterated. I am curious as to whether you have also tested the GKE Tanna Kaolik. Both of these Kavas were listed as "suspect" by Deleted User a few years ago, as the acetone tests he (or someone else) did produced a yellow-orange. This - together with a few reports on this forum of people having suspicious "Tudei-like" reactions to it - caused me to steer clear of the Marang Marang. I wonder, however, if the blend may somehow now be "purer" than a few years ago due to stricter standards, etc. I recently went through a 250g of Tanna Kaolik from GKE and felt no "Tudei-like" effects whatsoever; in fact (keeping in mind that I am no Kava expert), it feels, looks and smells to me to be a very clean, noble Kava. Therefore I would be interested to know if you have tested a recent batch yourself and if so, what the results were.
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Thank you :) I bought both Marang Marang and Kaolik recently (July 2016) but I have not gotten around to acetone testing Kaolik yet. I am planning on uploading a review soon. However, I have no reason to suspect that any of them contain tudei. There were none of the usual tudei-effects (dizziness, "drunkenness") present and I slept well and felt fine in the morning. I am quite familiar with the effects of tudei, since I bought and consumed a pound back in the day when I didn't know better (n)
 
kavamedicine

kavamedicine

Kava Curious
dragonaut said:
Thank you :) I bought both Marang Marang and Kaolik recently (July 2016) but I have not gotten around to acetone testing Kaolik yet. I am planning on uploading a review soon. However, I have no reason to suspect that any of them contain tudei. There were none of the usual tudei-effects (dizziness, "drunkenness") present and I slept well and felt fine in the morning. I am quite familiar with the effects of tudei, since I bought and consumed a pound back in the day when I didn't know better (n)
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I appreciate you doing this and look forward to your results. By the way, how would you compare the Marang Marang to the Kaolik? I have read through the reviews of each respective strain on this forum, but would like to hear from you, since: 1) the most recent batch may be different from that of a few years ago, 2) of course the subjective experience of each Kava strain is different for each person, and 3) I haven't read any side-by-side reviews comparing the two. (Unfortunately, for those of us in Europe are options are pretty limited... It would be nice if GKE could stock more varieties; however, I am also very grateful that they exist at all and are offering us this wonderful service.)

Like I said, I have tried the Kaolik (which I really like) but not the Marang Marang. I much prefer "heady" Kavas which are uplifting rather than sedating (such as the Nambawan from BKH). Therefore I think the Kaolik probably fits my profile more, but I would be interested to hear from you about your experience with the most recent batch of Marang Marang. Thanks. :)

And by the, way, of course anyone else with experience with these Kavas is more than welcome to chime in. ;)
 
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dragonaut

dragonaut

Kava Curious
Sorry for the late reply, I have a 4 month old daughter so internet time is limited ;) If you prefer the uplifting kavas, I understand why you like Kaolik :) It is a very clean, stimulating and subtle kava with zero sedating effects in my experience. Marang Marang is more sedating, with a more notable body feeling, muscle relaxation and works very well for sleep. It also seems a bit stronger than Kaolik, but not much. I prefer Marang Marang of the too, but Kaolik is definitely also worth keeping around. I have not tried Malekula Magic since that one was sold out, but I look forward to it.
 
kavamedicine

kavamedicine

Kava Curious
Thank you for your response. That is good info. However, after reading your recommendation of the Marang Marang I went to the GKE site and both the Kaolik and Marang Marang are now 38.99 Euros for only 100 grams! Last week, when I placed an order, it was the same price for 250 grams. That is a 150% price increase! I am hoping it is an error and will be corrected soon. Otherwise I can forget about trying the Marang Marang or any other Kava from them as that is simply too much too much to pay. That would be a true bummer, as I thought I had found a good Kava connection in Europe. I tried to contact them but they are completely unreachable (no link on the site, email that I have bounces back). Pretty frustrating, to be honest. Global Kava Exports, are you reading this? o_O
 
dragonaut

dragonaut

Kava Curious
That's crazy, I bought a kilo of each for 98 EUR if I recall correctly... Same price as Malekula Magic is now. Also, all other options than 100 g are gone. That has to be a mistake :)
Regarding the stimulating effects of Kaolik, I drank ~30 g yesterday and it gave me insomnia! Something which never happens to me.
 
kavadude

kavadude

❦ॐ tanuki tamer
Cian, the owner, used to post around here, but I haven't seen him in a while, and I noticed while going through our server logs that his personal email is bouncing. I wonder if he sold the business or something?
 
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