Nature medicine
February 1, 2024
Kirsten N Cherian, Jackob N Keynan, Lauren Anker et al.
66 citations
A combination of the plant-derived compound ibogaine with magnesium, given alongside complementary treatments, led to large improvements in functioning, PTSD, depression, and anxiety in 30 male Special Operations Forces veterans with mild traumatic brain injury. Functioning improved significantly both immediately after treatment and one month later, with very large effects on PTSD, depression, and anxiety at one month. No serious adverse events occurred. The authors call for controlled trials to confirm these initial open-label findings.
Chemistry & biodiversity
April 1, 2019
Felix Krengel, Quentin Chevalier, Jonathan Dickinson et al.
10 citations
Ibogaine and related ibogan alkaloids, which show anti-addictive effects against drugs of abuse, occur in several Apocynaceae species. This work used gas chromatography-mass spectrometry and principal component analysis to compare alkaloid profiles of root and stem barks from four Mexican Tabernaemontana species with the root bark of the African shrub Tabernanthe iboga. Separation between species was attributed to quantitative differences in the major alkaloids coronaridine, ibogamine, voacangine, and ibogaine. T. iboga contained high concentrations of ibogaine, while Tabernaemontana samples showed predominance of either voacangine and ibogaine, or coronaridine and ibogamine. The results confirm that Mexican Tabernaemontana species are viable sources of anti-addictive compounds.
Chemistry & biodiversity
May 1, 2020
Felix Krengel, Jonathan Dickinson, Christopher Jenks et al.
7 citations
Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC/MS) compared the alkaloid profiles of bark and leaf from one Mexican species (Tabernaemontana arborea) and one African species (T. crassa) with the primary commercial sources of semisynthetic ibogaine, Voacanga africana root and stem bark. The qualitative and quantitative similarities between T. arborea and V. africana barks support previous reports that T. arborea is a promising alternative source of voacangine and ibogaine. The results also suggest that T. crassa could be used to produce conopharyngine and ibogaline, two compounds with the same basic skeletal structure and possibly similar antiaddictive properties as ibogaine.
Anthropology of Consciousness
February 6, 2023
Jonathan Dickinson
1 citation
Three individuals who took iboga or ibogaine for different reasons each reported a distinct sense of transpersonal communication—either with the substance itself or with visions of other people during the dreamlike experience. Narrative analysis linked these reports to previously identified phenomenological categories but showed wide variability. The sense of transpersonal presence resembles that described in waking REM experiences such as sleep paralysis. For these individuals, a feeling of transpersonal intersubjectivity contributed to the experiences seeming ontologically real and meaningful. Closer engagement with such narrative reports may guide future research and ibogaine-assisted therapies.
PLoS ONE
October 13, 2025
Francisco González-espejito, Laura Esteban Rodríguez, Eduardo J. Pedrero Pérez et al.
Ibogaine, a compound from the iboga plant used in traditional Bwiti rituals, shows promise for treating opioid dependence and neurological conditions, but existing tools fail to capture its dream-like subjective effects. A new 70-item Ibogaine Experience Scale (IES) was developed from a prior qualitative study and tested with 499 participants in neuropsychiatric and substance use treatment settings. The final scale has seven factors—including narrative visions, visual changes, discomfort, cosmic visions, introspection, somatosensory sensitivity, and dissociation—explaining 53.9% of variance, with excellent statistical fit and high internal consistency. The IES offers a reliable way to measure ibogaine's multidimensional effects for research and clinical use.