Tabemanth iboga

Further variants on the terpenoid indole alkaloid skeleton (Figure 6.82) are found in ibogaine from Tabemanthe iboga, vincamine from Vinca minor, and ajmaline from Rauwolfia serpentina. Ibogaine is simply a C9 Iboga type alkaloid, but is of interest as an experimental drug to treat heroin addiction. In a number of European countries, vincamine is used clinically as a vasodilator to increase cerebral blood flow in cases of senility, and ajmaline for cardiac arrhythmias. Ajmaline... 

Tabemanthe iboga. This is the major source of ibogaine and is found in Gabon, mentioned above. 

Ibogaine, the most studied of the alkaloids present in the roots of Tabemanthe iboga, is representative of another cluster of indolic molecules that have been included among psychedelics. Ibogaine is a naturally occurring compound of special interest because it comes from an entirely different botanical family than anything discussed above—a contribution to the mystery of psychedelics from equatorial Africa. 

In 1966, Biichi, Coffen, Kocsis, Sonnet and Ziegler published a "total synthesis of iboga alkaloids (Journal of the American Chemical Society, 88 3099-3109). In 1969, Harrison Pope, Jr. summarized the findings in scores of studies on Tabemanthe iboga (pp. 174-184 in the April-June Economic Botany). These papers, coming at a time of great interest in psychedelics, stimulated renewed examination of this compound-duster. 

Ibogaine was isolated in 1901 from Tabemanthe iboga roots by Dybowski and Landrin and by Haller and Heckel. The most abundant alkaloid in the shrub s root bark, ibogaine exhibts the indole nucleus structure common to most psychedelics. Its stereochemistry (the dotted lines are at angles to the rest of the molecule) was established in the late 1960s ... 

Toward the end of her initiation and under the influence of a full dose of eboka (Tabemanthe iboga), an initiate stares intently out of the chapel, waiting for her ancestors to "arrive." Because white is the color of the ancestors, she has been painted all over with kaolin. Behind her sits the nyia-eboka, her "mother of eboka, who gives her encouragement. 

Tabemanthe iboga is grown mainly in Gabon and the Congo, although it can be cultivated in most tropical and semi-tropical areas. Little has been raised in the U.S. It has been propagated successfully in a few greenhouses, as in Berkeley, California. 

Through a biomimetic approach, tabersonine is also the semisynthetic precursor of vincamine, a Eburna alkaloid isolated from Vinca minor, and is used for cerebral insufficiency in Europe. Tabemanthe iboga has a long history of use as a stimulant in tropical Africa its main active principle is ibogaine, a controlled substance in many countries (Fig. 40). It is being actively investigated in the United States for its potential to induce opium addiction withdrawal. 

The first report of the use of Tabemanthe iboga, or eboka, was iii 1864, and there were other reports of its use in Gabon and the Belgian Congo as a stimulant and... 

Isolation Dybowski, Compt. Rend. Acad. Set. 133 748,1901 Tabemanthe iboga) ... 

Tabemanthe elliptica (Stapf) Leeuw,—371 Tabemanthe iboga BaiUon—217,371,373,... 

Pope, H.G. 1969. Tabemanthe iboga An African narcotic [nc] plant ofsocial importance Economic Botany 23(2) 174—184. 

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