Kava: Medicine Hunting in Paradise. - book reviews

Kava, the Pacific Elixir is a reprint from Yale University Press's excellent series, "Psychoactive Plants of the World," edited by Richard Evans Schultes and Robert F. Raffauf, and it maintains the high standards set by Johannes Wilbert's Tobacco and Shamanism in South America. This book covers the botany, chemistry, pharmacology, ethnobotany, anthropology, and economics of kava -- technical, thorough, highly recommended.

I opened Kava: Medicine Hunting in Paradise with much skepticism: the "book" on kava is The Pacific Elixir. When, on page eleven, Chris Kilham pays highest homage to that fine academic work, my interest perked up. He'd done his homework. Kilham did more than that -- he went to Vanuatu, probably the center of dispersion for the kava plant. His story is part ethnobotany, and part travelogue, including a description of a fairly hairy ride in an open skiff through some high seas. Kilham builds a strong case for kava's potential for relieving anxiety and insomnia. Even before I finished the book I dug into my herb locker, pulled out the kava root, and started grinding. I had a wonderful evening.

COPYRIGHT 1997 Point Foundation
COPYRIGHT 2004 Gale Group