Scientific Literature Library

Kruegel AC, Gassaway MM, Kapoor A, et al.

Journal of the American Chemical Society, 2016, 138(21):6754–6764

Kruegel et al. demonstrated that mitragynine itself has weak opioid receptor affinity, while its metabolite 7-hydroxymitragynine drives most of the opioid-like activity observed in animal models. Established the foundation for G-protein-biased signalling discussion.

Obeng S, Kamble SH, Reeves ME, et al.

Journal of Medicinal Chemistry, 2021, 64(1):570–583

Obeng et al. characterised the full pharmacological profile of both alkaloids at μ-, δ-, and κ-opioid receptors, reporting partial agonism and distinct functional bias relative to morphine.

Henningfield JE, Grundmann O, Babin JK, Fant RV, Wang DW, Cone EJ

Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology, 2018, 95:28–36

Henningfield et al. applied the FDA's eight-factor scheduling analysis and concluded that kratom does not meet the threshold for Schedule I classification — a widely-cited finding in the case against federal scheduling.

Garcia-Romeu A, Cox DJ, Smith KE, Dunn KE, Griffiths RR

Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 2020, 208:107849

Garcia-Romeu et al. reported survey data from ~2800 kratom users on dose, frequency, reasons for use, and self-reported effects. One of the larger real-world datasets informing policy discussion.

Sharma A, Kamble SH, León F, et al.

Journal of Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Analysis, 2019, 173:65–72

Sharma et al. developed and validated a UPLC-MS/MS method for parallel quantification of mitragynine, 7-OH, speciogynine, speciociliatine, and related alkaloids. Reference methodology for quality-control testing.

Ahmad K, Aziz Z

Journal of Ethnopharmacology, 1999, 66(2):183–188

One of the earliest English-language reports documenting the patterns of traditional kratom use in southern Thailand — chewing fresh leaves as a stimulant during labour, and as a self-managed substitute during opium shortages.