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

EUR -
AED 4.105252
AFN 78.797051
ALL 98.893319
AMD 433.749643
ANG 2.00029
AOA 1024.357672
ARS 1257.401991
AUD 1.726388
AWG 2.014619
AZN 1.894575
BAM 1.967649
BBD 2.255714
BDT 135.737404
BGN 1.958856
BHD 0.421283
BIF 3281.510303
BMD 1.117681
BND 1.458201
BOB 7.719591
BRL 6.272418
BSD 1.117243
BTN 95.296148
BWP 15.251571
BYN 3.656166
BYR 21906.540172
BZD 2.244124
CAD 1.559656
CDF 3208.861365
CHF 0.940199
CLF 0.027393
CLP 1051.159719
CNY 8.054398
CNH 8.044461
COP 4708.620804
CRC 567.726442
CUC 1.117681
CUP 29.618536
CVE 110.790095
CZK 24.942161
DJF 198.633856
DKK 7.459515
DOP 65.829876
DZD 149.154865
EGP 56.405322
ERN 16.765209
ETB 148.552518
FJD 2.528748
FKP 0.847332
GBP 0.84049
GEL 3.068057
GGP 0.847332
GHS 14.222485
GIP 0.847332
GMD 80.472573
GNF 9673.526071
GTQ 8.589727
GYD 233.733349
HKD 8.714585
HNL 29.051336
HRK 7.534623
HTG 146.071597
HUF 404.018956
IDR 18575.851922
ILS 3.973953
IMP 0.847332
INR 95.126524
IQD 1463.532969
IRR 47054.354819
ISK 145.667499
JEP 0.847332
JMD 177.981798
JOD 0.792767
JPY 165.002627
KES 144.744858
KGS 97.741511
KHR 4488.605618
KMF 492.340141
KPW 1005.907529
KRW 1580.819534
KWD 0.343385
KYD 0.93099
KZT 567.877027
LAK 24164.25501
LBP 100101.550337
LKR 333.870553
LRD 223.436524
LSL 20.473189
LTL 3.300221
LVL 0.676074
LYD 6.13595
MAD 10.421659
MDL 19.528249
MGA 5050.436086
MKD 61.542104
MMK 2346.553122
MNT 3994.476518
MOP 8.967945
MRU 44.27462
MUR 51.893802
MVR 17.214206
MWK 1937.392892
MXN 21.713176
MYR 4.831172
MZN 71.421162
NAD 20.473465
NGN 1791.004651
NIO 41.107548
NOK 11.577662
NPR 152.468749
NZD 1.882346
OMR 0.430293
PAB 1.117208
PEN 4.084497
PGK 4.639942
PHP 62.334189
PKR 314.600711
PLN 4.233858
PYG 8921.846685
QAR 4.072177
RON 5.103445
RSD 117.931762
RUB 89.254777
RWF 1599.805326
SAR 4.191965
SBD 9.333582
SCR 15.894298
SDG 671.167312
SEK 10.873809
SGD 1.454963
SHP 0.878321
SLE 25.427268
SLL 23437.204022
SOS 638.430318
SRD 40.796462
STD 23133.732267
SVC 9.776002
SYP 14533.551955
SZL 20.467345
THB 37.151287
TJS 11.585057
TMT 3.911882
TND 3.379307
TOP 2.617718
TRY 43.365527
TTD 7.581691
TWD 34.016599
TZS 3003.767623
UAH 46.42962
UGX 4088.676695
USD 1.117681
UYU 46.66099
UZS 14406.756824
VES 103.625748
VND 29016.665443
VUV 134.091698
WST 3.105526
XAF 659.919194
XAG 0.033979
XAU 0.000344
XCD 3.020588
XDR 0.82109
XOF 659.939985
XPF 119.331742
YER 273.217081
ZAR 20.499279
ZMK 10060.468697
ZMW 29.605681
ZWL 359.892704
  • RBGPF

    0.8100

    63.81

    +1.27%

  • RYCEF

    0.3200

    10.7

    +2.99%

  • CMSC

    -0.0200

    22.06

    -0.09%

  • SCS

    -0.1100

    10.71

    -1.03%

  • CMSD

    0.0900

    22.39

    +0.4%

  • RELX

    0.5700

    52.4

    +1.09%

  • RIO

    0.8600

    62.27

    +1.38%

  • GSK

    -1.0200

    36.35

    -2.81%

  • AZN

    -1.2300

    67.72

    -1.82%

  • NGG

    0.0000

    67.53

    0%

  • VOD

    -0.0100

    9.06

    -0.11%

  • BP

    0.3700

    30.56

    +1.21%

  • BTI

    -0.2900

    40.69

    -0.71%

  • BCC

    0.6100

    93.71

    +0.65%

  • BCE

    -0.5800

    21.98

    -2.64%

  • JRI

    -0.1300

    12.88

    -1.01%

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