Kava, Piper Methysticum, is the most effective relaxing and stress-relieving plant in all of nature. This book is the tale of plant researcher Chris Kilham's investigations into this plant and his far-ranging explorations deep in the South Pacific in search of a source of kava. Kilham takes the reader on an adventurous journey through the mystical native legends, outlandish history, and exciting science surrounding this potent plant. A story replete with pulpit-pounding missionaries, kava-drinking natives, sorcerers, a mysterious Tahitian prince, and the author's own humorous outlook amidst difficult and perilous circumstances, Kava is a must-read for those who love tales of travel and adventure and those interested in plant medicine.
Kava is poised to become an important and now readily available natural alternative to stress-relieving drugs.
"Truly exotic locales can be visited in Kava: Medicine Hunting in Paradise, Chris Kilhams's odyssey of a medical research mission on the South Pacific island of Vanuatu." (
Publishers Weekly?
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About the Author
Chris Kilham has been involved in the field of holistic health as a writer, lecturer, and entrepreneur since 1970. He is the author of The Five Tibetans and The Whole Food Bible, as well as the founder of Cowboy Medicine Expeditions, which specializes in the research and development of plant medicines. He lives in Massachusetts.
"Part David Attenborough, part Indiana Jones, Mr. Kilham, an ethnobotanist from Massachusetts... scoured remote jungles and highlands for three decades for plants, oils and extracts that can heal." - The New York Times
Chris Kilham is a medicine hunter, author and educator. The founder of Medicine Hunter Inc., Chris has conducted medicinal research in over 20 countries including India, China, Siberia, Brazil, Venezuela, Peru, Chile, Vanuatu South Pacific, Lebanon, Syria, Ghana, Austria, Germany, Thailand, Malaysia, South Africa, Morocco and the United States.
Chris is the FOX News Medicine Hunter and appears on FOX News Health online in the US and international television markets. He also writes a weekly column for FOX News Health. Chris is Explorer in Residence at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst where he teaches the popular ethnobotany course The Shaman's Pharmacy through the Department of Plant & Soil Sciences. This intensive immersion course takes students to the Peruvian Amazon, where they learn about medicinal plants, the rainforest, and native culture.
Chris works with companies to develop and popularize traditional plant-based food and medicinal products into market successes. These include kava, maca, rhodiola, schisandra, horny goat weed, catuaba, tamanu oil, herbal beverages and dozens of other plants. He is currently working to build market demand for cat's claw and dragon's blood, both strong medicinal plants from the Amazon rainforest.
Chris is the author of fourteen books, including Hot Plants, The Five Tibetans, Psyche Delicacies, Tales from the Medicine Trail and Kava, Medicine Hunting in Paradise. Chris also writes articles on plant medicines for several publications, and is a contributing columnist for FOX News Health.
"I love adventure! That's why I love teaming up with The Medicine Hunter, Chris Kilham." - Dr. Manny Alverez, Fox News Health
Chris lectures extensively on holistic health and botanical medicines, throughout the United States and the European Union, Hong Kong, Thailand, Dubai, Australia, Peru, Vanuatu and many other countries. Recent appearances include The Vitamin Shoppe, In Cosmetics, American Herbalists Guild, Missouri Botanical Garden, Atlanta Botanical Garden, Medicines of the Earth Symposium, Natural Products EXPO East, Natural Products EXPO West, Southwest Yoga, Midwest Yoga, Plant Teacher's Convergence, University of Massachusetts, Evolvers, Geneva Vitafoods Conference and HBA New York.
As a guest expert, Chris has presented across a wide variety of sectors to companies such as; Coca Cola, Pepsi, Unilever, Pfizer, Roche, Beiersdorf, Avon, L'Oreal, Chanel, Clarens, Body Shop, Royal Canin, GNC, and Whole Foods. He is also a regular advisor to Woman's World, Fox News Health, and various industry and trade publications.
Chris has appeared as a guest expert on over several hundred radio and television programs including news programs on ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS, CNBC, CNN, MSNBC, BBC, Oprah & Friends, FOX TV, and NPR. He has appeared as a guest on The Dr. Oz Show, and is a regular guest on FOX News Ask Dr. Manny. As a TV guest he has spoken about medicine hunting, traditional botanical medicines, nutraceuticals, environmental and cultural preservation and other related topics for a wide variety of audiences. Chris has appeared on over 1500 radio programs and more than 500 TV programs worldwide.
Since October 2007 Medicine Hunter Chris Kilham has been featured in The New York Times, CNN, FOX News, The Dr. Oz Show, NBC Nightly News, ABC 20/20, Psychology Today, International Herald Tribune, CNBC Power Lunch, HD Net World Report, Prevention Magazine, Natural Health Magazine, Oprah & Friends, PBS Healing Quest, Better TV, Good Morning America, Ode Magazine, and Woman's World.
Chris conducts medicinal plant research for Naturex of Avignon, France, one of the largest botanical extraction companies in the world. He is also an advisory board member of the Naturex Foundation, which funds community development projects in various countries.
Chris is on the Scientific Advisory board of EuroPharma, founded by pioneer Terry Lemerond. EuroPharma is a maker of superior plant-based medicines, distributed exclusively through the natural products industry.
An avid body surfer and adventure traveler, Chris lives and works in Massachusetts with his wife, artist/activist Zoe Helene and their dog Boo. Chris advocates sane drug policy and the shamanic and ritual use of hallucinogens. Chris and Zoe travel the globe on Medicine Hunter expeditions, and work together to promote plant medicines, environmental protection and cultural preservation.
CNN calls Chris "The Indiana Jones of natural medicine."
This review is from: Kava: Medicine Hunting in Paradise: The Pursuit of a Natural Alternative to Anti-Anxiety Drugs and Sleeping Pills (Paperback)
This book gave me the comfort level and impetus to try Kava as a cure for my chronic insomnia. Previously I read and tried melatonin, with no success. Finally a protracted illness lead me to search again. The author gives enough details on the plant, pharmocology, and ethnobotany. There is eight pages of full references for additional research, if desired.
Went to a local health food store / COOP with the book in hand and had the staff present the different brands of Kava in stock. Finally selected a Kava tincture because a salesperson / user said that this is the best form, compared to powdered root, capsules, and other standardized extracts. He said you will get the fastest and most powerful effects with this tincture, especially since the label said it was extracted from Vanuatu Isl 4-8 yr old roots. He was right on target; the tincture gave a white cloudy mixture when a couple of dropperfuls in 1/3 glass of water. It tasted pretty musty, as expected from reading about the Nakamals, native kava bars!! Got a slight numbing of the tongue too! Fell asleep within 30 minutes and did not wake up for 6 hours, refreshed and alert. The next best thing to being there with the author, who wrote a great story.
My first time using tinctures. Normally I use capsules or try to make a tea out of the bark or root. The book told me of the uselessness of making a tea, as heat destoys the kavalactones.
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4.0 out of 5 starsAn engaging, thought-provoking journey to Vanuatu to find kava suppliers., July 22, 1996
By A Customer
This review is from: Kava: Medicine Hunting in Paradise: The Pursuit of a Natural Alternative to Anti-Anxiety Drugs and Sleeping Pills (Paperback)
We're featuring this book in a section of COCONUT, the Web Guide to the Tropical World. The section is all about kava, and the author's new book comes out at a perfect time, as interest in Kava is growing rapidly all over the world.This book rambles at times, but the story of the author's encounters with a village of ni-Vanuatu people is wonderful and memorable and happily, it forms the bulk of the book.For a full review of Chris Kilham's KAVA book, check out the COCONUT website (which will be making its grand opening in August 1996) at http://www.coconut.com.---- Brian Dear, Editor of "COCONUT"
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This review is from: Kava: Medicine Hunting in Paradise: The Pursuit of a Natural Alternative to Anti-Anxiety Drugs and Sleeping Pills (Paperback)
I often like to use kava with vanuatu variety being my favorite because it is so powerful. The book is a quick 155 pages of 29 chapters usually not going over 5 pages. The book describes his journey from first using kava in America when it was very relatively unknown to going on a business expedition inspired by his experience to the beautiful South Pacific. Kilham wanted to scout out how viable a kava business could be and make some local contacts. You learn about kava (not in a complicated and detailed overview like a botany class) but from a "lay" person's perspective that you probably wouldn't figure out simply from skimming the internet. He tells you a little background of the area he's visiting and mentions the cultural traditions behind the nakamals (kava bars). I was a little confused because in one area he seems to romantacise gender roles when he says about the practice of women not drinking kava (page 63), "....I could detect no dissonance as a result of the distinctly different roles played by the men and women at the nakamal. In Vanuatu drinking kava is strictly a male activity....In the politically correct U.S. such a distinction would lead to picketing and outrage....We could learn a few things from them." Then he writes on page 77 about how two women went around to all the nakamals on the island and drank kava and proved that women dont take away the inebriating effect of kava. Kilham writes, "There went another archaic myth, shattered by two enthusiastic , determined, liberated Ni-Vanuatu women." Of course this isn't a political book so it's not a big thing, just a dissonants one notices. I also disagree with him about the former as why shouldn't there be picketing (at least if there was resistance-which there'd need to be to get picketing)if women are being denied something? I'm sure in Saudi Arabia you have many women defend their men walking around chaperoning them (and those against it) does that make it okay?He critisizies the Christian zealots who tried to ban kava (among other native cultural pursuits) and documents a little about how they went about doing it and early impressions of kava culture from Europeans. His experience when he went to a remote island was very entertaining and nearly classical. One could envision his experience as being of the rare lot like Cook experienced many years earlier! I like the way he integrated the songs playing through the loud speakers at his area of rest at Erakor. It helped weave an abstract and novel twine of modernity and mysticism in his whole adventure.I would recommend this to any kava enthusiast!
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First Sentence:
On a balmy evening in June of 1980, I sat with a small group of friends around a dinner table in a spacious home at the summit of a hill in Brookline, a suburb of Boston. Read the first pageKey Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
kava business, fresh kava root, potent kava, kava growers, kava culture, cultivated kava, strong kava, much kava, kava cultivation, kava drinkers, kava consumption, kava preparation, kava products, kava drinking, kava plants, kava use, kava beverage, drinking kava, kava ceremony, kava extract, stick tobacco, coconut crab, palm fiber
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Baie Martellie, Chief Willie, Port Vila, United States, Chief Rafael, Devil's Point, Papua New Guinea, Agriculture Ministry, Baie Barrier, John Frum, Native Queen, New Hebrides, Captain Cook, Plant Quarantine, Van Air, Red Light, Santo Island, Ekasuvat Bay, Germany Nervous, Hong Kong, Hotel Santo, New Zealand, Vanuatu Bitter
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