An audio version of this interview can be found on the Kratom Science Podcast #40 Kratom Science: How did you become involved with studying kratom? Oliver Grundmann: It’s an interesting way, how I got involved with kratom. In 2015 one of my Masters students who works in the forensic field with a forensic toxicology lab …
What is a kratom extract? In short, kratom extracts are a more potent form of kratom. They are created from extracting kratom’s alkaloids (through boiling), then reapplying these isolated alkaloids onto powdered leaf. In turn, you get a very concentrated form of kratom, which requires a significantly smaller dosage. So much more potent, in fact, …
The government of Thailand announced May 26th in the Thai Royal Government Gazette that kratom will be taken off the list of banned narcotics. This is expected to go in effect on August 24th. Growing kratom remains restricted until regulations are set in place with what could eventually become a new kratom industry. A new …
Kratom Legality in Thailand will go into effect August 24, 2021 Read More »
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued an import alert on kratom in 2012, giving the agency the legal right to seize imports. The justification for the alert was based on laughably flimsy evidence, including nine deaths in Sweden of a product called “Krypton”, that contained toxic levels of O-desmethyltramadol (Babin, 2018). Since then, the …
FDA-Induced Panic by Another Kratom-Induced Seizure Read More »
A new study from Thailand (La-up, 2021) found traditional users of kratom had elevated levels of high-density lipoprotein (HDL or “good” cholesterol) and low levels of triglycerides, or “fats from the food we eat that are carried in the blood” (Cleveland Clinic 2019). High HDL, low levels of low-density lipoprotein (LDL or “bad” cholesterol), and …
Correlation Found Between Thai Kratom Users and “Good” Cholesterol Levels Read More »
A group of scientists from the Malaysian Agricultural Research and Development Institute have documented the anatomy of the kratom plant. In the study published Tropical Life Sciences Research, scientists documented not only the anatomy, but the “micromorphology characteristics” of kratom plants collected from Malaysia. The study provided botanical evidence kratom is indeed a species of …
Every American should have the right to grow their own plant medicine in their backyard, greenhouse, or inside their residence. Plants including kratom, poppies, cannabis, and psilocybin mushrooms should be just as legal to grow as coffee, sunflowers, tomatoes, and shiitakes. The right to have a plant medicine garden could be protected just as the …
Happy 4/20! Every American should have the right to grow plant medicine Read More »
Like kratom, I think that it is fair to say that us kratom consumers have been partially misunderstood and incorrectly labeled. In a world full of disinformation, it is easy to get lost in the madness. One day, you may see on the news a wild claim stating, “Man driven to psychosis by kratom.” Other …
Note: This article is a summary of the journal article cited as follows:Gonçalves, J., Luís, Â., Gallardo, E., & Duarte, A. P. (2021). Psychoactive Substances of Natural Origin: Toxicological Aspects, Therapeutic Properties and Analysis in Biological Samples. Molecules (Basel, Switzerland), 26(5), 1397. https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules26051397Full text: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7961374/ Scientists from Portugal, where the possession and consumption of all …
List of “New” Psychoactive Substances of Natural Origin Read More »
Most of the world’s commercial kratom is produced in Indonesia. A ban in Indonesia would be severely detrimental to the kratom supply. Kratom is illegal to sell as a food or medicine domestically in Indonesia, but as it grows wild there, those who use kratom can easily obtain it from native trees. It is legal …