He was commenting on the research findings of the University of Aberdeen in Scotland and the Laboratoire de Biologie Moleculaire du Cancer, a medical school in Luxembourgh which found that kava compounds inhibit the activation of a nuclear factor important in the production of cancer cells.

"It's good news but there's a ban in the European market and right now we can't look forward to speeding up on the yaqona (kava) production," Mr Tuisese said.

"Perhaps they (researchers) can help us convince the European market and assist in lifting the ban. The latest findings confirm what people have been saying all along that kava was not harmful to health."

The Scottish university said the anti-cancer activities of kava has been made known in the journal The South Pacific Journal of Natural Science, that kava methanol extracts kill ovarian and leukaemia cells in test tubes.

It said those results prompted the university to do a detailed study of how it worked or the mechanism or activity.

"Two compounds have been identified as being responsible for this activity and researchers are working on elucidating the mechanism of activity of another compound, which was found to have a different mode of action.

"The study also showed that yaqona compounds did not show general toxicity meaning it does not kill every cell irrespective of whether it is cancerous or not."

"This is interesting because it selectively homes into the target in the cell and inhibits it."

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