Hi everyone, I wanted to take this time to let you all know a bit about CO2 extraction and Kava. As you all may know I just recently released my GHK Mahakea CO2 extract and it has been a big hit. I have to say that I have sold out of the first batch of extract that I had made. I was going to have some more made but I remember some questions by some of the Kava Forum members. They were wondering if the CO2 extracts the FKB or any other things that we may not want.
I did not know of any studies that were done on CO2 kava extract to see if it was safe or not, so I sent a bunch of emails out to all the kava scientists and experts and what they told me was very interesting.
Before I get into what they told me I will let you all know that I am "NOT" going to make anymore of the extracts. A close friend of mine reminded me what GHK was all about (thank you E.J.) and GHK is truly about good high quality kava for use in the traditional way, meaning a good clean and fresh kava powder to be mixed with water to make this wonderful beverage that we all love so much.
Now I will talk about what I found out about the CO2 extraction process and kava. First let me tell you what one scientist said about the safety--- The NTP study with a CO2 extract has not really shown toxicity for this type of extract even with doses of 2 g/kg body weight in rats and mice. If FKB is toxic, it should have been visible in this test. Either FKB is not as toxic as some observations suggest, or FKB is not highly concentrated in the CO2 extract. Either way, I don’t think it contributes to safety problems in the CO2 extract.
So that being said, you all do not need to worry about taking the CO2 extract that I sold to you. But as we know the traditional beverage has been used for thousands of years and the CO2 extraction process had been around for what, less than 100 years.
For this reason I want to be on the safe side and stick with the traditional use of kava, this is in fact what GHK is all about, traditional use and great Noble kava.
Now to some of the interesting stuff. One of the scientists said this about CO2 extraction and kava.---
FKB is relatively lipophlic. With acetone there is 10 times more FKB extraction than with ethanol, and with water there is less. I don’t have figures for the CO2 extract, but we can attack the question from another angle: CO2 extracts accumulate the lipophilic kavalactones methysticin, dihydromethysticin and even yangonin (despite its relative scarcity in kava) to rather high percentages. If this is the case, I’d expect the FKB values to be rather high.
Another scientist said this--- CO2 extraction has been done in the past (sub contracted to a company in NZ), we have not analyzed the extracts, but the super critical carbon dioxide extraction will most likely extract all kavalactones and all FKs, along with other compounds... they all come together.
"The safest way is cold water extraction", but in that case of course, the final result depends of what is in the plant when it is processed as cold water extraction results in a "suspension" of lipid like compounds into water.
One Kava expert asked me this question about kava extracts.---Does it have the amino acids? glutathione? minerals and/or starches like beverage made from root/stump fresh or dry?
So for these reasons I want to stay on the traditional side of using kava as it has a very long track record of safety and it has all the constituents that make up the real kava experience that has been enjoyed for thousands of years.
So I hope with this information that it will give you some answers to your questions about CO2 kava extract. I am not saying it is not safe but I am giving you all the info that we have so far so you can make your own choice. Thank you all for your support and please let me know if any of you have any questions at all.
Aloha nui loa.
Chris
I did not know of any studies that were done on CO2 kava extract to see if it was safe or not, so I sent a bunch of emails out to all the kava scientists and experts and what they told me was very interesting.
Before I get into what they told me I will let you all know that I am "NOT" going to make anymore of the extracts. A close friend of mine reminded me what GHK was all about (thank you E.J.) and GHK is truly about good high quality kava for use in the traditional way, meaning a good clean and fresh kava powder to be mixed with water to make this wonderful beverage that we all love so much.
Now I will talk about what I found out about the CO2 extraction process and kava. First let me tell you what one scientist said about the safety--- The NTP study with a CO2 extract has not really shown toxicity for this type of extract even with doses of 2 g/kg body weight in rats and mice. If FKB is toxic, it should have been visible in this test. Either FKB is not as toxic as some observations suggest, or FKB is not highly concentrated in the CO2 extract. Either way, I don’t think it contributes to safety problems in the CO2 extract.
So that being said, you all do not need to worry about taking the CO2 extract that I sold to you. But as we know the traditional beverage has been used for thousands of years and the CO2 extraction process had been around for what, less than 100 years.
For this reason I want to be on the safe side and stick with the traditional use of kava, this is in fact what GHK is all about, traditional use and great Noble kava.
Now to some of the interesting stuff. One of the scientists said this about CO2 extraction and kava.---
FKB is relatively lipophlic. With acetone there is 10 times more FKB extraction than with ethanol, and with water there is less. I don’t have figures for the CO2 extract, but we can attack the question from another angle: CO2 extracts accumulate the lipophilic kavalactones methysticin, dihydromethysticin and even yangonin (despite its relative scarcity in kava) to rather high percentages. If this is the case, I’d expect the FKB values to be rather high.
Another scientist said this--- CO2 extraction has been done in the past (sub contracted to a company in NZ), we have not analyzed the extracts, but the super critical carbon dioxide extraction will most likely extract all kavalactones and all FKs, along with other compounds... they all come together.
"The safest way is cold water extraction", but in that case of course, the final result depends of what is in the plant when it is processed as cold water extraction results in a "suspension" of lipid like compounds into water.
One Kava expert asked me this question about kava extracts.---Does it have the amino acids? glutathione? minerals and/or starches like beverage made from root/stump fresh or dry?
So for these reasons I want to stay on the traditional side of using kava as it has a very long track record of safety and it has all the constituents that make up the real kava experience that has been enjoyed for thousands of years.
So I hope with this information that it will give you some answers to your questions about CO2 kava extract. I am not saying it is not safe but I am giving you all the info that we have so far so you can make your own choice. Thank you all for your support and please let me know if any of you have any questions at all.
Aloha nui loa.
Chris
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Aloha.
