I have no idea how this one made it past me.
http://io9.com/what-causes-the-weird-effects-of-kava-1480204172/all
http://io9.com/what-causes-the-weird-effects-of-kava-1480204172/all
Article on Kava By io9 (gawker media)
- Thread starter The Kap'n
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there's a few people in the comments section that I'd like to slap. 
but i found a couple interesting things in there too...
-a guy said the fijians told him not to walk on wet grass when you're on kava because it will make you nauseas and claims that he did and sure enough, he threw up. i don't see how it can be true but it's an interesting local belief anyway.
-a mexican dude mentioned a similar looking plant referred to as "Hoja santa" ...I looked it up and it is in the pepper family: "Piper auritum". It's mostly used in food but the essential oil from it contains Safrole...which is the precursor to making
Interesting.
The kavalactone Methysticin actually shares some structural similarity to ᴹᴰᴹᴬ also.
but i found a couple interesting things in there too...
-a guy said the fijians told him not to walk on wet grass when you're on kava because it will make you nauseas and claims that he did and sure enough, he threw up. i don't see how it can be true but it's an interesting local belief anyway.
-a mexican dude mentioned a similar looking plant referred to as "Hoja santa" ...I looked it up and it is in the pepper family: "Piper auritum". It's mostly used in food but the essential oil from it contains Safrole...which is the precursor to making
MDMA (ecstasy).
The kavalactone Methysticin actually shares some structural similarity to ᴹᴰᴹᴬ also.
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infraredz
BULA!
Yeah, that and the whole Yangonin => THC reference. Just so anyone reading this knows, kava doesn't have anything in the way of a significant affinity for endocannabinoid receptors. I'll copy paste the bit I wrote for the How it Works thread since I feel it's worth getting "out there".
Regarding the binding affinity of Yangonin (which is found in obscenely low concentrations in biomass, as well as apparently being very hard to extract with water...
"To make it simpler, it's similar to the hypothesis that kava exerts effects through the endocannabinoid system (ie. Yangonin). While Yangonin does have an affinity for the CB1 receptor, we don't know what effect the ligand has (agonist, antagonist, etc). Also, and more importantly, the affinity is in the micromolar range vs. the nanomolar range which is more common for actual cannibinoids (ie. THC).
THC has an Ki of 10nM for CB1. By comparison, the Ki of Yangonin is 0.72 μM.
Keep in mind there are 1000 micromoles (μM) to 1 nanomole (nM)."
Regarding the binding affinity of Yangonin (which is found in obscenely low concentrations in biomass, as well as apparently being very hard to extract with water...
"To make it simpler, it's similar to the hypothesis that kava exerts effects through the endocannabinoid system (ie. Yangonin). While Yangonin does have an affinity for the CB1 receptor, we don't know what effect the ligand has (agonist, antagonist, etc). Also, and more importantly, the affinity is in the micromolar range vs. the nanomolar range which is more common for actual cannibinoids (ie. THC).
THC has an Ki of 10nM for CB1. By comparison, the Ki of Yangonin is 0.72 μM.
Keep in mind there are 1000 micromoles (μM) to 1 nanomole (nM)."
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