Chemical Constituents of the Active Principle of the Ava Root

This is the groundbreaking Master's thesis of Alice A. Ball, who in 1915 became the first woman and first African American to earn a Master's Degree from the University of Hawaii. At a time when women and Black individuals were largely locked out of American higher education, Ball conducted rigorous chemical analysis of kava, the ava root sacred to Pacific Islander cultures, isolating its active compounds through meticulous laboratory work. Her thesis bridged indigenous botanical knowledge with Western scientific method, translating centuries of Polynesian ceremonial use into the language of academic chemistry. The work includes historical context of kava's role in South Pacific society and her preliminary observations of its physiological effects on animals. This is not merely a scientific document but a quiet act of intellectual sovereignty: a young Black woman claiming space in a laboratory to study a plant that colonial science had long dismissed. For readers curious about hidden histories in STEM, the intersection of traditional knowledge and chemistry, or the pioneers who paved the way for diversity in science.