Natural alternative to anti-anxiety drugs and sleeping pills. There's no harm in drinking an occasional cup, but we cannot recommend it as medication, let alone as frequent recreation, especially not before driving. If there were a best-seller list for herbs, the contender for top spot these days would be kava.
Beverages made from kava root are a time-honored adjunct to ceremonial life in Oceania.
Europeans first encountered kava in Hawaii. But today there's no longer any need to boil roots and pass a cup from hand to hand. Kava can be purchased at your local health-food store or pharmacy. It comes in pill and capsule form and is now being heavily promoted as an anti-anxiety drug and relaxant. It is also an intoxicant.