Medical Dictionary
Main Entry:
ka·va Pronunciation:
'käv-& Function:
noun 1 : an Australasian shrubby pepper (
Piper methysticum) from whosecrushed root an intoxicating beverage is made;
also : the beverage
2 : the dried rhizome and roots of the kava shrub used formerly as a diuretic and urogenitalantiseptic but now mostly as a dietary supplement in the belief that it acts as a muscle relaxant and calms the emotions by acting on the limbic system of the brain
[kah-vuh] 
