H. G. Pope
Economic Botany pp174-184 apr/jun, 1969.
This paper focuses mainly on the ethnobotany of this individual species, but was also the first paper to publish many of the chemical and pharmacological studies on Ibogaine in English, most of them being published in French or German. This plant was formally identified as a member of Tabernaemontana, but later placed in it’s own genus of about seven species. It is native to equa-torial W Africa around Gabon and the Congo.
The root bark is the part of the plant that is used mostly, it is reported to contain up to twelve alkaloids, with Ibogaine being by far the major alkaloid, and apparently responsible for most of the activity, other alkaloids reported include Tabernanthine, Ibogamine, Coronaridine and Voacangine. The dried root bark has been found to contain up to 5-6 % alkaloids, which may even be lower than for fresh material due to some of the alkaloids oxidising as the material dries.
Ibogaine is reported to be a cholinesterase inhibitor here, which in people causes mainly hypotension due to decreased cardiac output and stimulation of digestion and appetite.
Another affect reported is a strong central stimulation, reportedly similar in effects to large amounts of caffeine, toxic doses may produce convulsions, paralysis and arrest of respiration.
Earlier this century a report states that a least one doctor in France tried 10-30 mg doses for influenza, convalescence from infectious diseases, neurasthenia, and a few cardiac disorders. He found that the drug improved appetite, muscle tone and general rate of recovery, whilst also noting a mild euphoria in almost all his patients.
Another effect is the ‘hallucinogenic’ or entheogenic states that are produced by higher doses, generally higher than 300 mg, it depends on the body weight, and in some cases probably up to and over 1 g has been consumed in the initiation rituals of the ‘iboga’ cults. A 200 mg dose produced only minor ‘hallucinogenic’ effects in one researcher, along with some anxiety. But generally these effects have not been studied or researched, and the scheduling of the drug, and the fact that it is relatively unobtainable outside west Africa have hampered this.
For stimulation purposes a small piece of root is chewed during the day, apparently allowing the people to carry more and travel further without extra effort.
There is a fairly good description of how the plant is used by people in Gabon and surrounding areas of west Africa. Generally the bark scraped off the young roots is regarded as the best, and it is the raspings of the root bark that are taken in the initiation ceremonies of the Iboga cults. These ceremonies going all day and night, with dancing and drumming with the initiates entering a deep trance state, where they meet Bwiti and receive visions.
The religious use of Iboga has in fact grown over the last fifty years and has meant that missionaries have been able to have little impact, and the plant plays a fairly important role in the societies that use it, the plant being widely cultivated in home gardens.
Here is a Europeans description of a ceremony that is quoted in this study.
The priest and his assistants had made their preparations in a private place. They had shared a concoction made from the grated rind of a plant named Ibo’a, a hallucinogen and an aphrodisiac. Their interminable dancing would reinforce these effects and carry them all, so they said, to the frontiers of true understanding and to the sources of power.......
The dancing began around each of the poles dominating the architecture of the temple, a series of jumps, stamps, leaps and movements, which might be described as compulsive. The torsos of the men streamed with sweat and their muscles stood out under the play of lights. From time to time one of them rushed over to a pail of water, drank great draughts, and them resumed his intoxicated motion. The congregation sang and accompanied the priest by dancing in place. The women shook their rattles, the only instruments which provided an occasional musical accompaniment. The rythym accelerated. The group had become a single creature, tensed for an impossible victory. I felt profoundly foreign, separate, trapped by my human dignity, encumbered by a body which had lost even the memory of it’s glorious potentialities. I felt like a kind of cripple to whom no-one could pay even the slightest attention...
What does our civilisation offer that is capable of arousing a fervour of this kind, an involvement spelling adventure for the body as well as the mind? Our churches put inner life and moral principles ahead of that exaltation which leads to the threshold of unconsciousness. They seem cold, devoid of supernatural presence, ill-suited to impassioned communion. In the eyes of the villagers, the missionaries are so many ‘wet blankets’ in the celebration of the fulfilment of man and the glory of the gods.