{"id":434298,"date":"2026-05-19T02:05:15","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T02:05:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/434298\/"},"modified":"2026-05-19T02:05:15","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T02:05:15","slug":"power-plant-what-new-research-reveals-about-kava","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/434298\/","title":{"rendered":"Power plant? What new research reveals about kava"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"MarcMarc Wilson<\/a><\/p>\n

Psychology writer\u00b7New Zealand Listener\u00b7<\/p>\n

18 May, 2026 06:06 PM4 mins to read<\/p>\n

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In Fiji and Tonga, the sun-dried roots are ground, mixed and strained into a\u00a0tanoa (a wooden bowl) then served in cups made of coconut shells. Photo \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n

I\u2019m in Rarotonga, celebrating our 25th wedding anniversary with our adult children and their partners. The boy is checking in on the rabbit using the online camera. I\u2019m thinking about what to make for lunch. Oh, and what to do today.<\/p>\n

\n We\u2019ve discovered many cultural ceremonies aren\u2019t on during
\n our visit because there\u2019s a big competition happening. But that doesn\u2019t mean there\u2019s no opportunity to try something different. For example, kava. We hadn\u2019t been here an hour before the lad had sourced some for a, ahem, poolside ceremony of his own.\n <\/p>\n

Kava is derived from the plant piper methysticum, colloquially called kava kava. I didn\u2019t know it\u2019s part of the same family of plants that includes piper nigrum, which you\u2019ll know as the source of the black pepper in our pantry cupboards. Piper methysticum is an evergeen shrub that can grow as high as 7m, with large, heart-shaped leaves that apparently look a lot like our own native kawakawa. Hmm, kava kava, kawakawa (though it\u2019s actually piper excelsum, endemic to New Zealand).<\/p>\n

The Pacific cousin is valued for the kavalactones most highly concentrated in the roots. The experience of ingesting kava (\u201cbeing rooted\u201d) is often described as inducing a profound, calm and grounded relaxation without the mental fogginess or loss of control associated with alcohol. <\/p>\n

Since the 1990s, kava has been promoted for a range of uses, including as a treatment for stress and anxiety. It also has relaxant and anticonvulsant effects, and acts as a mild sedative and analgesic. Unlike some of the hype around other \u201cnatural\u201d products, a Cochrane review (the gold-standard analysis of findings from previous studies) found kava significantly better than a placebo for managing anxiety in the short term. It\u2019s been proposed as a culturally appropriate component for treatment of post-trauma symptoms, and appears to be as effective as prescribed drug treatments for mild-to-moderate anxiety in the short term, but without the same side effects.<\/p>\n

You can prepare kava for use from dried or fresh roots, but you can buy the dry ground product, legally, in stores in many parts of the Pacific. Preparation and rituals vary around the region: in Fiji and Tonga, the sun-dried roots are ground, mixed and strained into a tanoa (a wooden bowl) then served in cups made of coconut shells. In Samoa, the fresh roots are often mashed into a pulp, then mixed in a tanoa and served by the \u2018aumanga \u2013 young men yet to gain a title \u2013 and served to chiefs and guests. This is often highly ritualised and serves to develop and maintain community.<\/p>\n

Apparently, the kava tastes quite bitter and peppery on first try, particularly when made from dried powder, and is followed by an earthy aftertaste accompanied by a numbing of the mouth similar to what you get when the dentist sticks you with an anaesthetic.<\/p>\n

Though it may not have the side effects of benzodiazepines, it does have side effects, including short-term sedation, headache, dizziness and nausea, and the abovementioned mouth numbness. It can also trigger liver damage. <\/p>\n

The evidence for cognitive impairment is somewhat mixed. A recent study by University of Waikato and ESR researchers evaluated the cognitive effects of kava at the start, middle and end of a six-hour faikava session. The session follows a traditional protocol, including talanoa (a Pacific form of discussion), and consumption of fruit, peanuts, chips and sweets (called \u201cchasers\u201d). In a traditional session, participants drink about 31\/2 litres of kava.<\/p>\n

This study found no negative impacts on cognitive speed or accuracy, perception of time, ability to respond to what\u2019s going on around you, or focus. But keeping track of the order of events was affected, and the authors speculate this would be particularly problematic if users drove home after the ceremony. Don\u2019t kava and drive, then. Or fly, in our case. <\/p>\n

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Copy LinkEmailFacebookTwitter\/XLinkedInReddit<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Marc Wilson Psychology writer\u00b7New Zealand Listener\u00b7 18 May, 2026 06:06 PM4 mins to read \u200c Subscribe to listenAccess…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":434299,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[141959,1443,21653,4624,8046,6928,14646,1061,134,59726,51705,5812,524,117,111,139,69,1642,143,4885,10112,35495,96437,1518,1517,165,1960,1865,3382,15315,6923,102],"class_list":["post-434298","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-medication","tag-25th","tag-about","tag-adult","tag-anniversary","tag-camera","tag-celebrating","tag-checking","tag-children","tag-health","tag-kava","tag-lunch","tag-make","tag-medication","tag-new","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-online","tag-partners","tag-plant","tag-power","tag-rabbit","tag-rarotonga","tag-research","tag-reveals","tag-their","tag-thinking","tag-today","tag-using","tag-wedding","tag-what","tag-with"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434298","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=434298"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434298\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/434299"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=434298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=434298"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=434298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}