"The health and social effects of drinking water-based infusions of kava"

[TheKavaSociety]

It's a rather interesting review of at least some of the major studies (conducted up until 2011) . Unfortunately, the authors do not seem to be aware of either the issue of kava adulteration (with aerial parts or other stuff) or the whole tudei controversy. I am becoming quite convinced that the omission of such important variables from these studies makes them potentially very misleading and possibly highly inconsistent. I am wondering if new studies will take these issues into account.

 

[kavadude]

The health and social implications are severe. Imagine a society of people who all get along and don't sweat the small stuff. It's terrifying.

In all seriousness, the tudei controversy mostly started *here* (well on the old forums) as a result of statements by Dr. Lebot. Although I'm sure the folks doing primarily research on kava are and were appraised of it, I think many researchers not focused on kava and casual users are completely unaware. Hopefully it and other potential issues with kava preparation (aerial portions and method of extraction) will become common knowledge.

 

[TheKavaSociety]

In all seriousness, the tudei controversy mostly started *here* (well on the old forums) as a result of statements by Dr. Lebot. Although I'm sure the folks doing primarily research on kava are and were appraised of it, I think many researchers not focused on kava and casual users are completely unaware. Hopefully it and other potential issues with kava preparation (aerial portions and method of extraction) will become common knowledge.

Everybody I spoke with in Port Vila seemed to be well aware of tudei. And none of them seemed to have a PhD or any kind of formal knowledge about kava science. So, the tudei "controversy" really comes from the streets and villages of the Pacific. Well, over there it probably has never been a controversy: people simply have never consumed tudei on a regular basis. The controversy started when people in America, NZ, Europe started drinking it on a daily basis. Soon some of them started reporting some unpleasant effects and then realized that tudei was never considered too nice in the Pacific.

 

[verticity]

Yet I wonder. Kava plants don't reproduce themselves, they need to be cultivated. For some reason, people on Vanuatu are cultivating a myriad of varieties of tudei. If it was totally useless to them presumably they would stop cultivating it. I guess it could be that tudeis are easier to grow, so would serve as kind of a poor substitute if they couldn't grow enough noble kava. Or they could use it, but occasionally. I know that the pharmaceutical companies encouraged them to plant a bunch of tudei, so there is a lot now; but prior to that they must have been cultivating it for thousands of years, since those strains still exist.

 

[TheKavaSociety]

Yet I wonder. Kava plants don't reproduce themselves, they need to be cultivated. For some reason, people on Vanuatu are cultivating a myriad of varieties of tudei. If it was totally useless to them presumably they would stop cultivating it. I guess it could be that tudeis are easier to grow, so would serve as kind of a poor substitute if they couldn't grow enough noble kava. Or they could use it, but occasionally. I know that the pharmaceutical companies encouraged them to plant a bunch of tudei, so there is a lot now; but prior to that they must have been cultivating it for thousands of years, since those strains still exist.

As I understand it, in the past tudeis and medicinal kavas were used as substitutes for today's pain-killers. There are indeed several types of tudeis, but from what I remember there are few (if any) regions in Vanuatu (defined as a particular part of one of the islands) that would grow more than one. It is therefore likely that each region had its own tudei for extreme pain relief or ceremonial purposes...