Intoxicating pepper

Synonyms Kava-Kava Kawa Ava Awa Intoxicating pepper Piper methysticum... 

P. methysticum, kava-kava, awa, kew, tonga (1), kawa, yaqona, sakau (3), ava, ava pepper, intoxicating pepper (5). 

Kava-kava Piper methysticum Intoxicating pepper... 

Areca nuts (betel nuts) are the seeds of Areca catechu (Palmae/Arecaceae), a tall palm cultivated in the Indian and Asian continents. These nuts are mixed with lime, wrapped in leaves of the betel pepper (Piper betle) and then chewed for their stimulant effect, and subsequent feeling of well-being and mild intoxication. The teeth and saliva of chewers stain bright red. The major stimulant alkaloid is arecoline (up to 0.2%) (Figure 6.36), the remainder of the alkaloid content (total about 0.45%) being composed of related reduced pyridine... 

Kava is an Australasian shrubby pepper (Piper methysticum). Amidst much ceremony, its crushed roots are made into an intoxicating beverage by the aboriginal people of the Molucca Islands and the Northern coast of Australia. In the west, kava is usually recommended for anxiety it appears to have sedative and extrapyramidal effects, in common with some anticholinergic and antidopaminer-gic drugs. Its sedative effects are synergistic when administered with benzodiazepines, barbiturates... 

All thofe medicines increafe the heat of the body, and remove thofe pains, which originate from a defeat of motion in the veflels, which perform fecretion as pepper produces a glow on the fkin, and balfam of Peru is faid to relieve the flatulent colic. But thefe medicines differ from the preceding clafs, as they neither induce coftivenefs nor deep coloured urine in their ufual dofe, nor intoxication in any dofe. 

Myristicin is found in nutmeg and mace—Myristica fragrans (Myristicaceae). It also occurs in black pepper, carrot, parsley and dill. Myristicin is structurally related to safrol and is toxic in high doses. Nutmeg itself exhibits narcotic and intoxicating properties, though it does have medicinal uses in lower doses (Hall 1973). 

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