All the world is an alkaloid.

Plants and especially there alkaloids have been something that has fascinated me since I was about twelve years old. What is an alkaloid? Alkaloids are a group of naturally occurring chemical compounds which mostly contain basic nitrogen atoms.  are produced by a large variety of organisms, including bacteria, fungi, plants, and animals and are part of the group of natural products (also called secondary metabolites). Although many people do not know what alkaloids are most of us could not live without them, imagine a day without: nicotine, caffeine, Theobromine (cocoa), Dopamine, Serotonin. The list goes on and on. Each month we will be looking at ether a single alkaloid, an alkaloid rich plant, or maybe something that is not an alkaloid at all but has similar effects on both the body and or culture. THC would be a good example although it acts like an alkaloid it is technically an alcohol. When looking at something that is legal such as Theobromine I will include a log of my personal use recipes and experiences. When we come across the not so legal molecules like mescaline I will probably focus on traditional use and maybe go into aspects of prohibition, Which is often times fascinating especially when looking at some of the tryptamines like DMT which are schedule one narcotics and are also naturally occurring in the human body. This month I will be looking Kratom (Mitragyna speciosa) which is a medicinal leaf harvested from a large tree in the Rubiaceae family native to Southeast Asia. It has a long history of use and is ileagel in some parts of the world. Kratom contains many alkaloids including mitragynine (once thought to be the primary active constituent), mitraphylline, and 7-hydroxymitragynine (which is currently the most likely candidate for the primary active chemical in the plant).^[4] Although 7-hydroxymitragynine and mitragynine are structurally related to yohimbine and other tryptamines, their pharmacology is quite different, acting primarily as mu-opioid receptor agonists. Other active chemicals in kratom include raubasine (best known from Rauwolfia serpentina) and some yohimbe alkaloids such as corynantheidine. In this month exploration we will be looking at this plant as a whole and in its parts.