Is Kava safe?

For centuries noble kava roots have been used safely throughout the South Pacific, often on a daily basis. To date there is no evidence linking people from these countries with higher-than-average liver health problems due to kava consumption.

 A number of years ago a report was published connecting liver health concerns and kava. This led to a kava ban in some countries. In recent years studies have shown that when noble varieties are consumed traditionally and responsibly, kava consumption is safe and may even have potential health benefits. This led to the kava bans being lifted in most countries that previously banned it.

Refer to studies and articles from:

It is important to note though, that whilst the consumption of noble kava strains when used responsibly do not pose a risk to public health, there are over 200 varieties of kava strains and not all varieties are suitable to make kava beverages. Some kava vendors have been found to sell kava powders containing potentially harmful aerial parts of the plant or unsuitable non-noble varieties such as tu-dei, medicinal or wild kava.

Tu-dei (two day) kava varieties are used to make kava beverages, however, are not traditional, and are known to produce a longer and stronger psychotropic experience, as well as nausea and other hangover effects (headache, dizziness and lethargy). This can last up to 2 days, hence the name Tu-dei Kava. Medicinal kava varieties are used by Custom Doctors (South Pacific herbalists) in traditional medicines and Wild Kava strains are not to be consumed as a food or drink.

Vanuatu prohibits the sale or export of Tu-dei and wild Kava strains (The Kava Act No. 7 2002), unless requested to do so by the person outside of Vanuatu.

Our kava (insert your business name) is sourced by The Kava House Vanuatu Ltd. They are approved suppliers and a second-generation family owned and operated business who have been working in the kava industry within Vanuatu for a number of years selling both locally and in the export trade. Together, we have a strong passion to see the kava market expand into Australia and see it extend pass the pilot phase. To support the expansion of the kava market and to see it succeed, we ensure that only noble varieties are sourced for import into Australia. We complete our noble variety testing in Vanuatu by the Vanuatu and Fiji departments of Agriculture and Biosecurity. This is done via colorimetric testing. The maximum accepted threshold is 1.1. Any test result higher than this means that it is highly likely that the kava is a non-noble variety. To see our noble variety testing results, click here

The current kava import regulations in Australia under the pilot phase are not testing for noble variety. This means that there is a high chance that non noble strains will make their way onto the Australian kava market. Rest assured when you get your kava from Vanuatu’s Kava House Australia it will ONLY ever be noble variety strains.