Kava fact of the day: Kava, what does it look like on the inside?
Today’s fact of the day comes from a study from 2020 regarding the 3d imaging and metabolomic profile of kava roots & corm chips. A good number of kava drinkers only see the final product, and cannot see the finer structure of the plant. We’re only going to glance over this paper and focus on Figure 4, as its overall topic is quite technical. It goes into descript detail of physically where the kavalactone contents reside in the root.
For this fact we’ll need to understand just a few key terms and what they mean.
Crown Roots: The thick, stump-like mass which grows below ground and the lateral roots shoot off from.
Lateral Roots: The roots of the kava plant which run horizontally along the ground outward from the crown root.
Parenchyma: the cellular tissue, typically soft and succulent, found chiefly in the softer parts of leaves, pulp of fruits, bark and pith of stems, etc.
Cork: Peel
In this figure x-ray images and computerized tomography unveiled the internal structure of the kava root and corm. For the sake of this online post I've added notations in the image to denote what is being depicted.
“Figure 4: X-ray μCT images of crown and lateral roots of P. methysticum. (A–H) and (I–P) denote images of 3D surface reconstructions based on μCT data of crown and lateral roots, respectively. (A) and (B) are the segmented air-filled spaces in parenchyma and the cork (peel). (C) represents the overlay of the cork and air-filled regions in parenchyma of the crown roots. (D) 3D rendering image of the whole section of crown root. (E) and (F) represent the transverse view images of crown roots in 3D rendering and grey scale, respectively. (G) and (H) represent the longitudinal view images of crown roots in grey scale and 3D rendering, respectively. (I) and (J) are the segmented tissues of lateral roots, comprising air-filled spaces in parenchyma and the cork (peel), respectively. (K) shows an overlay of the segmented regions of lateral roots including cork and air-filled regions in parenchyma. (L) 3D rendering t. (M) and (N) represent the transverse view of lateral roots in 3D rendering and grey scale. (O) and (P) represent the longitudinal view images of lateral roots in grey scale and 3D rendering. The sections a, b, c, and d represent cork, cortex, parenchyma, and air-filled spaces, respectively.”
Yogini S Jaiswal, Aaron M Yerke, M Caleb Bagley, Måns Ekelöf, Daniel Weber, Daniel Haddad, Anthony Fodor, David C Muddiman, Leonard L Williams, 3D Imaging and metabolomic profiling reveal higher neuroactive kavalactone contents in lateral roots and crown root peels of Piper methysticum (kava), GigaScience, Volume 9, Issue 9, September 2020, giaa096, https://doi.org/10.1093/gigascience/giaa096
Today’s fact of the day comes from a study from 2020 regarding the 3d imaging and metabolomic profile of kava roots & corm chips. A good number of kava drinkers only see the final product, and cannot see the finer structure of the plant. We’re only going to glance over this paper and focus on Figure 4, as its overall topic is quite technical. It goes into descript detail of physically where the kavalactone contents reside in the root.
For this fact we’ll need to understand just a few key terms and what they mean.
Crown Roots: The thick, stump-like mass which grows below ground and the lateral roots shoot off from.
Lateral Roots: The roots of the kava plant which run horizontally along the ground outward from the crown root.
Parenchyma: the cellular tissue, typically soft and succulent, found chiefly in the softer parts of leaves, pulp of fruits, bark and pith of stems, etc.
Cork: Peel
In this figure x-ray images and computerized tomography unveiled the internal structure of the kava root and corm. For the sake of this online post I've added notations in the image to denote what is being depicted.
“Figure 4: X-ray μCT images of crown and lateral roots of P. methysticum. (A–H) and (I–P) denote images of 3D surface reconstructions based on μCT data of crown and lateral roots, respectively. (A) and (B) are the segmented air-filled spaces in parenchyma and the cork (peel). (C) represents the overlay of the cork and air-filled regions in parenchyma of the crown roots. (D) 3D rendering image of the whole section of crown root. (E) and (F) represent the transverse view images of crown roots in 3D rendering and grey scale, respectively. (G) and (H) represent the longitudinal view images of crown roots in grey scale and 3D rendering, respectively. (I) and (J) are the segmented tissues of lateral roots, comprising air-filled spaces in parenchyma and the cork (peel), respectively. (K) shows an overlay of the segmented regions of lateral roots including cork and air-filled regions in parenchyma. (L) 3D rendering t. (M) and (N) represent the transverse view of lateral roots in 3D rendering and grey scale. (O) and (P) represent the longitudinal view images of lateral roots in grey scale and 3D rendering. The sections a, b, c, and d represent cork, cortex, parenchyma, and air-filled spaces, respectively.”
Yogini S Jaiswal, Aaron M Yerke, M Caleb Bagley, Måns Ekelöf, Daniel Weber, Daniel Haddad, Anthony Fodor, David C Muddiman, Leonard L Williams, 3D Imaging and metabolomic profiling reveal higher neuroactive kavalactone contents in lateral roots and crown root peels of Piper methysticum (kava), GigaScience, Volume 9, Issue 9, September 2020, giaa096, https://doi.org/10.1093/gigascience/giaa096
