title: Kavalactone content and chemotype of kava beverages prepared from roots and rhizomes of Isa and Mahakea varieties and extraction efficiency of kavalactones using different solvents.
abstract: The South Pacific islanders have consumed kava beverage for thousands of years. The quality of kava and kava beverage is evaluated through determination of the content of six major kavalactones including methysticin, dihydromethysticin, kavain, dihydrokavain, yangonin and desmethoxyyangonin. In this study, we determined contents of kavalactones in and chemotype of kava beverages prepared from roots and rhizomes of Isa and Mahakea varieties and extraction efficiency of five different solvents including hexane, acetone, methanol, ethanol and ethyl acetate. The six major kavalactones were detected in all kava beverages with these five solvents. Different solvents had different extraction efficiencies for kavalactones from the lyophilized kava preparations. The contents of kavalactones in the extracts with acetone, ethanol, and methanol did not differ significantly. Ethanol had the highest extraction efficiency for the six major kavalactones whereas hexane gave the lowest extraction efficiency.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Aquatic Botany and Watershed Ecology, Wuhan Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, 430074 China ; Department of Molecular Biosciences and Bioengineering, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, HI 96822 USA.
authors.forename: Jun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Biosciences and Bioengineering, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, HI 96822 USA.
authors.forename: Weiyue
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Qu
authors.affiliation: Department of Tropical Plant and Soil Sciences, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, HI 96822 USA ; Department of Tropical Plant and Soil Sciences, University of Hawaii, 3190 Maile Way, St. John 102, Honolulu, HI 96822 USA.
authors.forename: Harry C
authors.initials: HC
authors.lastname: Bittenbender
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Biosciences and Bioengineering, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, HI 96822 USA ; Department of Molecular Biosciences and Bioengineering, University of Hawaii, 1955 East-west Road, Honolulu, HI 96822 USA.
authors.forename: Qing X
authors.initials: QX
authors.lastname: Li
keywords: Chemotype; Extraction efficiency; Kava; Kavalactone; Piper methysticum