The Chemical Constituents of Piper Methysticum or The Chemical Constituents of the Active Principle of The Ava Root is the text of a Master’s Degree thesis presented in June 1915 by Alice A. Ball. Ms. Ball was the first woman and African American to receive a Master’s Degree from the University of Hawaii. Her thesis includes some history of the use of the ava root in the South Pacific islands along with the isolation and analysis of the extracts of the kava root and some preliminary observations of its effects when administered to animals. - Summary by J. M. Smallheer