Years back and now, the root bark of the tropical shrub Tabernanthe Iboga has been the basis of a tradition of initiation and healing in the forests of Western Equatorial Africa.
It is used as a tool for contacting ancestors, engaging natural spirits and accessing other dimensions to get advice for healing and moral life management.
The plant contains alkaloids which are but notwithstanding ibogaine, tabernanthine, coronaridine, voacangine, ibogamine, Ibogaline and harmaline, among others. Noribogaine is a major active metabolite of ibogaine.
One of the plant’s alkaloids, Ibogaine, has unique medicinal qualities which are attracting increasing interest from Western researchers and therapists. Ibogaine effectively helps drug addicts to overcome their addiction; it has also increasingly moved into the academic focus as a potential remedy, for Parkinson’s disease and Hepatitis C, as well as for application in the field of psychotherapy.
Iboga in Western Equatorial Africa.
The plant has attracted the interest of a lot of researchers and therapists around the world.
What is the use of Ibogaine?Iboga (Tabernanthe iboga) is a shrub that is used for ritual and ceremonial purposes in the African Biwiti cultures. It has hallucinogenic effects.
In many traditional cultures, young adults experience an encounter with death during their initiation ceremony. For this purpose, the pygmies use the root of the Iboga shrub.
Iboga contains chemicals that can cause brain stimulation. The root bark of the plant contains a chemical called ibogaine.
To extract the ibogaine from the root bark, the bark goes through several extraction processes to produce the final product, ibogaine* hcl.
The raw material for the ibogaine extract is the inner bark, which contains several beneficial Iboga alkaloids such as ibogaine, tabernanthine, coronaridine, voacangine, ibogamine, Ibogaline, and harmaline.
All of these alkaloids have a use in addiction treatment.
In the TA (Total Alkaloid extract), all alkaloids are present, with 55% Iboga alklaloids and 45% remaining plant material.
The PTA (highly purified alkaloid extract) contains the 3 most important Iboga alkaloids: Ibogaine, Ibogamin, and Ibogaline with 98% of this 3 alkaloids and 2% remaining plant material.
The final purification process yields the most important Iboga alkaloid,
Ibogaine* hcl (Hydrochloric).
The highest concentration of the Ibogaine alkaloid is found in the inner root bark, the layer between the outer bark and the root wood.
People use iboga for withdrawal from heroin, morphine, and other opioids, as well as for fever, addictions, and many other conditions.
