highest dhm kava supplement

[kl.kavaking]

What is the best brand with the highest DHM content?I'm not talking the powder form. I mean something I can get in a pill form in a bottle, from my local vitamin shop

 

[kl.Gray Owl]

If it doesn't say what strain of kava it is on the package, then it's probably crap, which probably excludes any pills you might find at your local vitamin shop. Also, if you take a ton of pills at once, instead of getting a nice gradual buildup of kavalactones giving your body time to adjust, you get a massive surge of DHM, if anything is going to make you sick that's going to do it. If I was going to do that, I'd get Shaman Instant from Nakamal at Home and put it in capsules myself, then at least you know you're ingesting stuff that is actually meant to be ingested and not leaves and other crap that causes liver damage.

 

[kl.kavaking]

Most of the brands I've looked up list the strain they contain, usually piper methysticum, but i dont really like the high amount of kavain in them which makes me all jittery , I've been looking for brands with 
piper wichmanii extract because according to Rex the is the species with the highest DHM amount. Yet unfortunately I haven't found any :/I just don't want to go through the hassle of ordering powder online, plus I prefer the already-to-go pill administration myself

 

[Bula Kava House]

There are well over 100 strains of piper methysticum, some are high in kavain, some are high in DHM, some DHK and so on. There are probably in the neighborhood of ten strains of piper wichmanii that are very rarely ingested due to the fact that they often cause nausea. Of the over 100 strains of methysticum, I'm sure you could find one that provides an effect you would enjoy, although you may not find it in a pill. If you are determined to continue your search for a pill made of piper wichmanii, look for those made with kava from Papua New Guinea. My personal experience leads me to believe that they export more of it than anywhere else. Now that I think about it, I've never seen or heard of it coming from anywhere but Papua New Guinea.

 

[Ed!]

It's a little daunting trying to wrap my brain around DHM, kavain, which kavas are high in which thing, and what that means for their effect. How does one figure these things out?

 

[Bula Kava House]

Ed: Read "Kava The Pacific Elixir" by Vincent Lebot. There's more info in there than you'll want to know. Very detailed.

 

[Ed!]

Ossum. They even have it at my library... done deal. Thanks Judd!

 

[kavalover]

Yeah that is an awesome book, so much information in that little thing.

 

[kl.new2kava]

I've always found the capsuled kava to be a blatent waste of money and a total scam. Usually for the price of a pound of kava root you get mabye an ounce of low grade kava in gelcaps. I usually use about twice whats in your average bottle of kavacaps to make a batch of kava and for a mere fraction of the price, also much more fufilling. As others have mentioned if traditional kava preperation and consumption is not of interest to you, I'd look into buying instant kava and making gelcaps. The problem with most instant kavas as well as most extracs is they rarely give any indication of what strain of kava they came from and if anything will only list the kavalactone percentage, there was a guy on ebay selling kava extract paste that had a breakdown of all the different kavalactones. The surefire best way to get high DHM is to buy a strain with high DHM levels, boroguro from BKH is high and tudei from KBR is too. You could then make kava the tradtional way and evaporate it to make instant kava which would be a crude extract and would have high DHM levels, more involved extractions could be used but most would involve solvents or some type of equiptment and may not be advisable for someone without chemistry experience.

 

[kl.Gray Owl]

The problem with evaporating or extracting is that kavalactones break down at 60 C (140 F). I think extracting into coconut oil in the style of cannabutter, as discussed in another thread, is probably the best bet for home use and avoids using any nasty solvents. Another option would be "boiling" under vacuum so the water could be quickly evaporated at a temperature less than 60 C, but you'll need a vacuum flask and a strong vacuum pump.

 

[Prince Philip]

Kavaking, it's just not going to happen. Sorry.

 

[kl.new2kava]

The problem with evaporating or extracting is that kavalactones break down at 60 C (140 F). I think extracting into coconut oil in the style of cannabutter, as discussed in another thread, is probably the best bet for home use and avoids using any nasty solvents. Another option would be "boiling" under vacuum so the water could be quickly evaporated at a temperature less than 60 C, but you'll need a vacuum flask and a strong vacuum pump.

I'm thinking that a basic acid to base extraction method would work with kava, or actually I imagine that it would be base to acid. Basically defatting can be done simply it just involves some chemistry. You could use citrus oil in lieu of nasty solvents and pickling lime as opposed to lye to basify the solution and use vinegar instead of hydrocloric acid to acidify it, the only thing that would change is the final product would be a racemic mixture of kavalactone acetates as opposed to hydroclorides. Still I wonder if this would worth the hassel, I'm under the belief that supercritical CO2 extraction is a spinoff of butane extraction that can be done with jerry rigged PVC pipe and can of butune fuel. That could prove to be a fire hazard though, I imagine the CO2 process is much cleaner and less prone to fire.

 

[kl.Gray Owl]

The problem with evaporating or extracting is that kavalactones break down at 60 C (140 F). I think extracting into coconut oil in the style of cannabutter, as discussed in another thread, is probably the best bet for home use and avoids using any nasty solvents. Another option would be "boiling" under vacuum so the water could be quickly evaporated at a temperature less than 60 C, but you'll need a vacuum flask and a strong vacuum pump.

I'm thinking that a basic acid to base extraction method would work with kava, or actually I imagine that it would be base to acid. Basically defatting can be done simply it just involves some chemistry. You could use citrus oil in lieu of nasty solvents and pickling lime as opposed to lye to basify the solution and use vinegar instead of hydrocloric acid to acidify it, the only thing that would change is the final product would be a racemic mixture of kavalactone acetates as opposed to hydroclorides. Still I wonder if this would worth the hassel, I'm under the belief that supercritical CO2 extraction is a spinoff of butane extraction that can be done with jerry rigged PVC pipe and can of butune fuel. That could prove to be a fire hazard though, I imagine the CO2 process is much cleaner and less prone to fire.
  

Kavalactones are somewhat unstable lactones.  Base will definitely hydrolyze the lactone if you hit it with enough to make a salt, but acid then base might work if you titrate it very carefully, or you might be able to reform the lactone, if you don't just end up making a polymer.  It's going to be touchy.  The hydrolyzed lactones are not active.