Kava Tea
Proven Health Benefits of Kava Tea:
- Great remedy for anxiety
- Components through many pathways act as inflammatory agents
- Capable to manage neurological condition such as headaches, tremors and restlessness
- Protects nerve cells
- Able to prevent lung tumorigenesis and onset of cancers Remedy for fevers
What is Kava Tea?
Kava tea is the beverage brewed from the root of Piper methysticum, the rather tall member of the pepper family. The shrub is native to the Pacific Islands and has been used for folk medicine and, in some respects, like alcohol for many centuries. The plant is usually propagated vegetatively, as the female flowers are scarce, making fruit and seed production not particularly useful. With over hundred different cultivars, six major phytochemicals called kavalactones are used to differentiate them. To make kava tea, the dry root, and sometimes, shavings of the stem are ground and mixed with coconut milk and filtered. Kava tea is much respected in the Pacific region, being served to guests at ceremonies, and most affluent households, having a cup or two before meals.
What is the Usefulness of Kava Tea?
Word of kava’s anti-inflammation properties have long been known to the scientific community. One study observed that kavalactones showed inhibition to edema, induced by formalin, serotonin or carrageenan, and also to UV-induced inflammation.1 In many cases, the Tumor Necrosis Factor (TNF-α), an inflammation and tumor agent was inhibited by kavain, preventing leukemia and Alzheimer’s disease. Neuroprotection ability of kava tea was seen in its increase of acetylcholinesterase and the inhibition of sodium channel in hippocampal neurons.2 In the treatment of lung cancer cells, kavalactones prevented the influx of calcium between cells that was induced by treatment with norepinephrine. Kava is also used clinically to treat epilepsy and anxiety.
Health benefits
- LPrevents
- Lung cancer
- Urinary tract infections
- Asthma
- Anxiety
- Insomnia
- Inflammation
- Alzheimer’s disease
- Liver disease – hepatic cholestasis
Nutrition
The main active ingredients in kava tea are special lactones that are exclusive to the plant and hence, are known as kavalactones. These include kavain, yangonin, desmethoxyyangonin, methysticin, and flavokavain. The roots are made up of 43% carbohydrates, 12% fiber, 3.6% proteins and 3.2% minerals.
Toxicity
Only mild toxicity has been reported in animal studies, when, not the tea, but the individual components were overloaded to a group of mice, rats and rabbits up to about 1050mg/kg.3 This goes to show that consumption of kava tea is virtually harmless to humans in food quantities. However, for people who react to peculiar phytochemicals in the tea, they may experience nausea, rash and fever.