The Prague Post - Gabon longs to cash in on sacred hallucinogenic remedy

EUR -
AED 4.32593
AFN 82.295267
ALL 97.926267
AMD 452.928986
ANG 2.108042
AOA 1080.158129
ARS 1450.538131
AUD 1.798909
AWG 2.123211
AZN 1.97697
BAM 1.955925
BBD 2.378252
BDT 144.489247
BGN 1.956569
BHD 0.443228
BIF 3509.024569
BMD 1.177925
BND 1.500096
BOB 8.139521
BRL 6.382709
BSD 1.177875
BTN 100.523433
BWP 15.600998
BYN 3.854647
BYR 23087.337533
BZD 2.365951
CAD 1.60298
CDF 3398.314928
CHF 0.935405
CLF 0.028538
CLP 1095.130086
CNY 8.440309
CNH 8.439248
COP 4689.40011
CRC 594.838068
CUC 1.177925
CUP 31.215023
CVE 110.272057
CZK 24.646319
DJF 209.743423
DKK 7.461447
DOP 70.494511
DZD 152.109735
EGP 58.022713
ERN 17.668881
ETB 163.469162
FJD 2.637608
FKP 0.862849
GBP 0.862601
GEL 3.203818
GGP 0.862849
GHS 12.19078
GIP 0.862849
GMD 84.211304
GNF 10215.653777
GTQ 9.05658
GYD 246.425771
HKD 9.246005
HNL 30.773969
HRK 7.536423
HTG 154.649897
HUF 399.191421
IDR 19062.013117
ILS 3.944854
IMP 0.862849
INR 101.068059
IQD 1542.998748
IRR 49620.106802
ISK 142.446945
JEP 0.862849
JMD 188.002032
JOD 0.835193
JPY 170.169006
KES 152.179739
KGS 103.009937
KHR 4732.302856
KMF 492.373362
KPW 1060.132846
KRW 1605.924511
KWD 0.359609
KYD 0.981663
KZT 611.719149
LAK 25381.624361
LBP 105536.55408
LKR 353.392616
LRD 236.165114
LSL 20.719226
LTL 3.478107
LVL 0.712515
LYD 6.344406
MAD 10.572177
MDL 19.84127
MGA 5300.339209
MKD 61.533938
MMK 2473.327643
MNT 4221.28704
MOP 9.523609
MRU 46.748992
MUR 52.94746
MVR 18.142013
MWK 2042.530717
MXN 21.945869
MYR 4.972025
MZN 75.339722
NAD 20.719226
NGN 1802.155048
NIO 43.342774
NOK 11.881143
NPR 160.837293
NZD 1.94009
OMR 0.452069
PAB 1.177875
PEN 4.176667
PGK 4.865311
PHP 66.570507
PKR 334.365799
PLN 4.24495
PYG 9386.600719
QAR 4.304976
RON 5.059074
RSD 117.1875
RUB 92.855943
RWF 1693.208361
SAR 4.415728
SBD 9.820275
SCR 16.592062
SDG 707.341474
SEK 11.264385
SGD 1.500088
SHP 0.925664
SLE 26.444823
SLL 24700.510663
SOS 673.143079
SRD 44.036776
STD 24380.677234
SVC 10.30666
SYP 15315.299293
SZL 20.703325
THB 38.117794
TJS 11.454733
TMT 4.134518
TND 3.43182
TOP 2.758819
TRY 46.916791
TTD 7.988511
TWD 34.086798
TZS 3109.799019
UAH 49.123144
UGX 4225.270407
USD 1.177925
UYU 47.273025
UZS 14790.946584
VES 128.95161
VND 30838.086562
VUV 139.49984
WST 3.053192
XAF 655.998982
XAG 0.031783
XAU 0.000353
XCD 3.183402
XDR 0.815852
XOF 655.998982
XPF 119.331742
YER 285.234647
ZAR 20.734148
ZMK 10602.732671
ZMW 28.533826
ZWL 379.291493
  • CMSC

    0.0900

    22.314

    +0.4%

  • CMSD

    0.0250

    22.285

    +0.11%

  • RBGPF

    0.0000

    69.04

    0%

  • SCS

    0.0400

    10.74

    +0.37%

  • RELX

    0.0300

    53

    +0.06%

  • RIO

    -0.1400

    59.33

    -0.24%

  • GSK

    0.1300

    41.45

    +0.31%

  • NGG

    0.2700

    71.48

    +0.38%

  • BP

    0.1750

    30.4

    +0.58%

  • BTI

    0.7150

    48.215

    +1.48%

  • BCC

    0.7900

    91.02

    +0.87%

  • JRI

    0.0200

    13.13

    +0.15%

  • VOD

    0.0100

    9.85

    +0.1%

  • BCE

    -0.0600

    22.445

    -0.27%

  • RYCEF

    0.1000

    12

    +0.83%

  • AZN

    -0.1200

    73.71

    -0.16%

Gabon longs to cash in on sacred hallucinogenic remedy
Gabon longs to cash in on sacred hallucinogenic remedy / Photo: Nao Mukadi - AFP

Gabon longs to cash in on sacred hallucinogenic remedy

Beneath yellow fruit, hidden within the roots of the iboga plant in the forests of Gabon, lies a sacred treasure that the country is keen to make the most of.

Text size:

For centuries, religious devotees have eaten it -- a psychotropic shrub that users say has addiction-fighting powers.

It fascinates foreign visitors, psychiatric patients and rich pharmaceutical companies that want to market it.

Now this central African country, where its use is enshrined in ancestral tradition, is scrambling to avoid missing out on the boom.

Teddy Van Bonda Ndong, 31, an initiate in the Bwiti spiritual tradition, calls it "sacred wood". He consumes it in small amounts daily, he said, for his "mental and physical health".

"It has a lot of power to help human beings," added Stephen Windsor-Clive, a 68-year-old retiree.

"It's untapped. A mysterious force lies within this plant."

He travelled to Gabon from Britain and consumed iboga -- in a powder ground from its roots -- during a 10-day Bwiti ceremony.

He tried it with a view to adopting it as a treatment for his daughter, who suffers from mental illness.

- Economic potential -

Given the interest, Gabon is seeking to channel the plant onto the international marketplace.

Exports of iboga products, including its active ingredient ibogaine, are few and strictly regulated in the country.

It grows mostly in the wild, but "more and more effort is being made to domesticate the plant", said Florence Minko, an official in the forestry ministry.

Potentially toxic in high doses, ibogaine can have effects similar to LSD, mescaline or amphetamines, and cause anxiety and hallucinations.

But users believe it can help drug addicts kick their habit and treat post-traumatic stress and neurological illnesses.

Yoan Mboussou, a local microbiologist and Bwiti initiate, hopes to gain an export licence for the 500-milligram ibogaine capsules he produces at his laboratory near the capital Libreville.

He sells them in Gabon as a food supplement, declaring them to have "anti-fatigue, antioxidant and anti-addictive" qualities.

Iboga, he believes, "is a potential lever to develop the economy and the whole country".

- Tradition and IP -

Countries such as the United States and France class iboga as a narcotic because of health risks identified in studies, especially heart issues. But it is used in treatment centres in countries including the Netherlands, Mexico and Portugal.

Numerous studies have examined its effects -- both helpful and harmful -- and scientists have taken out dozens of international patents for ibogaine therapeutic treatments.

"Most of those are based on studies of iboga use by Gabonese people, particularly by Bwiti practitioners," said Yann Guignon, from the Gabonese conservation group Blessings Of The Forest.

Despite the plant's "colossal therapeutic benefits", "Gabon is clearly missing out on the economic potential of iboga," he added.

"It did not position itself in this market in time by developing productive iboga plantations, a national processing laboratory and a proper industrial policy."

Overseas laboratories meanwhile have worked out how to make synthetic ibogaine and to extract it from other plants, such as Voacanga africana.

That flowering tree is available in greater quantities in Ghana and Mexico, which "can produce ibogaine at unbeatable prices", said Guignon.

And "Gabonese traditional knowledge is not protected by intellectual property regulations."

Currently only one company in Gabon has a licence to export iboga products -- though Minko, from the forestry ministry, said the country hopes this number will rise in the coming years.

She said companies were likely to produce more, spurred by revenue guarantees under the Nagoya Protocol, an international agreement on biological diversity and resource-sharing.

She wants the country to obtain a "made in Gabon" certificate of origin for iboga.

"This is a huge resource for Gabon. We have drawn up a national strategy for the conservation and sustainable use of the product," she said.

"Gatherings will soon be organised, bringing together all the groups concerned: NGOs, traditional practitioners and scientists."

- Soothing properties -

After harvesting iboga to the sound of traditional harps and consuming it in the initiation ceremony, Stephen Windsor-Clive was convinced by the benefits of iboga.

"I definitely want to bring my daughter here and have her have the experience," he said.

"This is my last attempt to find something which might be of assistance to her."

Another visitor, Tafara Kennedy Chinyere, travelled from Zimbabwe to discover Gabon and found, in the initiation, relief from anxiety and his "inner demons".

"I feel good in my body, in myself," he said, sitting under a tree after the ceremony.

"I feel like the iboga helped me to let go of things that you no longer need in your life."

Q.Pilar--TPP