Piper methysticum - Yakona, Ava Ava, Ava Kava, Kawa
"CONSTITUENTS: An active resin, or two resins of similar character, and a yellow, volatile oil. The resinous principle is permanent and probably contains the active principle of the plant.
PREPARATIONS: Extractum Kava-Kava Fluidum. Fluid extract of Kava-Kava. Not miscible with water. Dose: from ten to sixty minims. Solid extract of Kava-Kava, one part equals ten of the root. Dose: from two to six grains. Specific Medicine Kava-Kava. Dose: from five to twenty minims.
Therapy: The agent was first introduced for the treatment of all forms of gonorrhea, but it will probably give better satisfaction, will show its prompt influence to a better advantage in the treatment of sub-acute forms or in the slow, persistent, and otherwise intractable forms, than in the acute variety. It is best given in full doses of from fifteen to thirty minims every two or three hours, in cold water. In the old, protracted gleety cases there will be no necessity of an injection or auxiliary treatment, but in the more acute or sub-acute cases, a mild injection or irrigation is needed, which with auxiliary agents, such as gelsemium or cimicifuga, to act upon the fever and nerve elements of the disease, will greatly facilitate its action.
It increases the tone and power of the sexual and urinary apparatus, and improves the general health and vigor of the patient. It is a mild but efficient diuretic, stimulating both the excretion and the secretion of the urinary constituents. It is of much value in catarrh of the bladder, in old and enfeebled cases relieving the symptoms promptly; in some eases restoring the strength and tone of the urinary organs. It relieves painful urination, overcomes strangury, and increases the power to expel the urine."
(Finley Ellingwood: The American Materia Medica, Therapeutics and Pharmacognosy, 1915)