What is Kratom?
So, if you are here, you are more than likely asking yourself ‘What is Kratom?’. No need to look any further as I will give you a quick explanation.
Brief History
Kratom (Mitragyna Speciosa) is a plant out of the Southeast Asia, grown natively in Thailand, Indonesia, The Philippines, Malaysia, Myanmar, and New Guinea. Currently Thailand and Indonesia are the current power houses that export the plant worldwide. Kratom has a storied history dating back to the 19th century when it was first described by a botanist by the name of Pieter Korthals in 1839. Since and even before that time Kratom extract has been taken off it’s trees and used in many ways, two of which being traditional medicine and most commonly as a stimulant for workers to help stave off fatigue.
The Plant
Kratom extract comes from the Kratom tree. These trees, which are in the same family as coffee (Rubiaceae), on the high end grow to as much as 80 ft. The leaves that these trees produce have a distinctive look to them. The shape of the leaf being oval in nature and dark green when it comes to their color. There are different types of leaves that produce different effects when ingested. Some of these effects include, alertness, feelings of well-being, etc with the different types of leaves falling into three different categories white vein, green vein and red vein with some different sub-strains in between.
Alkaloids
There are over 40 different alkaloids in Kratom that helps it do its magic. However, out of the 40 there are the two main ones that are of concern are the Mitragynine and 7-hydroxymitragynine alkaloids. These two binds to receptors in the body to give the consumers the wanted effects of Kratom.