Kratom paper rewrite

[Murple]

Nearing completion of a MAJOR rewrite of that crappy kratom paper I put out a few years ago. Theres a few sections I want to factcheck, so, if anyone here has any corrections/additions/comments on these excerpts, please let me know ASAP.

 

quote:

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Mitragyna speciosa itself reaches heights of 50 feet with a branch spread of over 15 feet. The stem is erect and branching. Flowers are yellow and grow in ball-shaped clusters, as previously mentioned. Leaves are a dark glossy green in color, smooth, ovate-acuminate in shape, and opposite in growth pattern. Leaves can grow over 7 inches long and 4 inches wide. Kratom is evergreen rather than deciduous, and leaves are constantly being shed and being replaced, but there is some quasi-seasonal leaf shedding due to environmental conditions. During the dry season of the year leaf fall is more abundant, and new growth is more plentiful during the rainy season. When grown outside their natural tropical habitat, leaf fall occurs with colder temperatures, around 4° Celsius.

 

Kratom prefers wet, humusy soils in a protected position, often growing in swampy areas. Anecdotal reports from growers in Australia indicate that it prefers partial shade and does not like strong winds, although others report good results growing it in full sun. Being a heavy feeder, it requires very rich, fertile soil. It is drought sensitive, and if grown out of its native habitat, sensitive to frost. Propagation is by very fresh seed or cuttings. There is a low strike rate, due to an endogenous fungus which attacks xylem tissue. In addition to propagation by cuttings, kratom has been cloned by tissue culture. The first plant grown in this way was planted in February 2002 by Christian Rätsch and Claudia Müller-Ebeling at Wandjina Gardens (

http://www.wandjina.net.au/

) in Australia. Thais believe that seed grown kratom plants are not reliable and that half of the plants grown from seed of a good kratom tree will be worthless as a drug plant. Whether this is true or folklore has not been scientifically investigated.

 

In recent years, kratom has been successfully cultivated outside of Thailand from seeds and then frequently cloned. Most plants available outside of Asia are clones, as seeds have only a short period of viability. There are several clone strains worth mentioning. The best known clone is the Robert Rifat Clone. This plant was originally grown by Shaman Australis from seed collected from a research institution in Thailand by the Swiss scientist Claude Rifat. The parent plant has been used in several research studies, and presumably is the Chulalongkorn University tree used in the Chiba University research. The Rifat Clone has a reputation for being especially strong, and is the most widely available clone outside of Asia. Another clone also grown by Shaman Australis was the Craig's Clone. This plant was grown from Thai seed collected in 1999 from trees which local residents said were their preferred kratom plants. Craig's Clone was never developed into a commercial strain out of deference to Rob Montgomery of the Botanical Preservation Corps, who were developing plants in the USA from the same batch of seeds. Tissue cultures of the plant were saved in long term storage medium, but in 2001 these became unrecoverable and this clone is now lost. However, as previously stated, Rob Montgomery and other individuals in the US were able to grow plants from the same seed collection, which reportedly included approximately 100 seeds which were distributed to a variety of botanists and collectors. Finally, there is the Bumblebee Clone, which was grown by a Spiritplants member named Bumble from seeds of Vietnamese origin.

 

Although not scientifically studied yet, there is anecdotal evidence that indicates kratom grown in climates which are cooler than their native habitat tend to produce weak leaves. In warmer subtropical climates, there seems to be some seasonal variability, with more potent leaves growing from late summer through autumn and weak leaves in winter and spring. Greenhouse grown plants are reportedly also not very potent. Whether this indicates a relationship between temperature and alkaloid production or is even consistently true has not been thoroughly researched, but it seems likely this is the case.

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quote:

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The most recent country to ban kratom was Australia. The National Drugs and Poisons Schedule Committee held several meetings between February 2003 and February 2004 to consider including mitragynine and Mitragyna speciosa into Schedule 9 of the Standard for the Uniform Scheduling of Drugs and Poisons. The NDPSC 39th Meeting in October 2003 agreed to schedule mitragynine, and 40th Meeting in February 2004 agreed to add kratom to Schedule 9 as well, pending review of public comments. Although several comments were received arguing that kratom was relatively harmless and had potential therapeutic value, the Committee pointed out the widespread sale and promotion of kratom on the internet was reason to believe it was a potential problem drug. Regarding potential medical uses, the NDPSC meeting minutes state, "A Member noted that based on the available data there was little evidence to show that M. speciosa was widely used for therapeutic purposes other than as a substitute for other addictive opiates and one other traditional use as an antidiarrhoeal. Although the pharmacology of M. speciosa suggested that analgesic effects were likely given the findings of studies quoted in several papers [e.g. Journal of Psychoactive Drugs (Vol 20[4], Oct-Dec 1988], there was little data to suggest that Kratom was used traditionally as a pain reliever. On this basis, the Committee noted that despite post-meeting comments about the usefulness of M. speciosa for treating migraines, there was little evidence available to support a legitimate therapeutic need for the plant and members also noted that a number of other alternatives including complementary medicines were already available. A Member observed that information on Internet websites referred mainly to the use of Kratom for producing psychoactive effects and in contrast, there was paucity of information about its therapeutic use." The NDPSC then confirmed the decision to schedule kratom, and the amended SUSDP law went into effect 1 January 2005. Furthermore, a New Zealander on the Committee suggested that Australia should officially recommend to New Zealand that it also schedule kratom.

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And...

 

quote:

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Beginning in late 2002, Bruno Phillips of Ebotashop, a botanical vendor located in France, began marketing a product which was alleged to be kratom imported from Myanmar (where kratom is illegal). This product was sold to other vendors as well as through Ebotashop. Many exotic botanical retailers around the world carried it, Shaman Australis estimates that 100 kilograms or more in total may have been sold to vendors at prices from $200 to $600 per kilogram. Some retailers produced extracts of this alleged kratom, either as a "full-spectrum alkaloid free-base" or as an extract made using vinegar which was called "mitragynine acetate" - or even more incorrectly, "kratom acetate." One vendor who had purchased this plant material, Daniel Siebert, began to notice that the leaves did not match published botanical descriptions of kratom. Notably, the leaves had some hairs. Daniel Siebert did a TLC analysis, and Mark Brady of MJB Botanicals did an HPLC analysis, and neither test indicated the presence of mitragynine. The TLC analysis did not produce any visible indole spots with Ehrlich's reagent. However, the HPLC results had two peaks with retention times similar to yohimbine, leading Brady to speculate that it could contain similar alkaloids. The alkaloid content of the dried leaf was approximately 4%, although the alkaloids remain unidentified. Some companies kept selling the product after this discovery, but renamed it to "Mellow Gold." Many people who have tried it report psychoactivity of some kind, while others have reported no activity. No harmful effects have been reported. Seeds from the same source were also available, and sold through various resellers as well. Based on examination of the leaves and seeds, some have theorized that this material could be Mitragyna parvifolia, but this is only a guess. Whether the psychoactivity reported for "Mellow Gold" is real or placebo is also uncertain.

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The rewritten paper is several times longer and corrects many errors and misconceptions, and there's a ton of new information - especially in pharmacology.

Appreciate any help you can offer, since Shaman Australis was a center of much of the botanical research.

[Rev]

my only question is who certified that mitragynine is the active ingredient?

Given the number of alkaoids in the plant , the varying level of psychoactivity in the plant over different seasons and the differences in potency between dried aged and fresh leaf

How do we know that mitragynine is the active?

It would be egg on everybodies face it it wasnt - especially the TGA

[Murple]

Actually, mitragynine is *not* the main active, as has recently been scientifically proven.

[AndyAmine.]

Yeah, I belive it has been found that the hydroxy form of the drug was the alkaloid resposible for the opiate type effects for Kratom and was indeed stimulating the opiate receptor sites.

http://opioids.com/kratom/hydroxymitragynine.html

[Rev]

nice

[t st tantra]

i came accross a site claiming the fake kratom was a javanese species,mitragina java....,and that the material was grown in indonesia.

sorry ref misplaced.

t s t .

[Torsten]

I was offered the fake kratom before or at the same time as Bruno, but thought it was dodgy. The trader offering it operated out of India. As all the dodgy Mitragyna speciosa seed which was in fact M.parvifolia came from the same region it is likely that the herb was M.parvifolia too.

Some people were claiming that the kratom being sold out of Indonesia was M.javanica. This turned out to be incorrect as Duncan & Danny actually found M.speciosa there and this is what they are selling.

[ 08. May 2005, 13:32: Message edited by: Torsten ]