ibogaine

[ ih-boh-guh-een ]

noun

, Pharmacology.

1. an alkaloid, C 20 H 26 N 2 O, obtained from an African shrub, Tabernanthe iboga, having antidepressant and hallucinogenic properties.

Word History and Origins

Origin of ibogaine¹

From French ibogaïne (1901), from New Latin iboga the shrub's specific epithet (said to be from an Indigenous language of the Congo) + French -ine -ine ²

Example Sentences

In one observational study published in 2018, researchers followed 15 people as they received ibogaine treatment for opioid dependence in New Zealand, where ibogaine is legal by prescription, and interviewed them for a year after.

From Time

Ibogaine is unregulated in many countries, neither illegal nor approved, and that gray zone has allowed dozens of ibogaine treatment centers to pop up worldwide.

From Time

In 2017, Davis published a study in the Journal of Psychedelic Studies in which he surveyed 88 people—most of whom had been using opioids daily for at least four years—who had visited an ibogaine clinic in Mexico from 2012 to 2015.

From Time

Scientists don’t know exactly what ibogaine does to the brain.

From Time

After they took ibogaine, all seven said they were no longer in heroin withdrawal, and five of them lost their desire to use heroin for six months or longer.

From Time

Ibogaine puts you in the middle of your struggle, in the middle of your pain.

From The Daily Beast

The ibogaine ceremony begins when her heroin withdrawal reaches a breaking point.

From The Daily Beast

After intense training in Gabon following the incident, he dedicated himself to practicing ibogaine ceremonies like the Bwiti.

From The Daily Beast

Lotsof eventually took the drug to the Netherlands, where some of the first ibogaine clinics were born.

From The Daily Beast