Rachel Carlson

Some people even use it to manage depression, anxiety, PTSD, and ADHD.

Which is what FDA Commissioner Marty McCary was referring to earlier.

It can relieve pain, make people feel kind of calm or even euphoric.

Okay, interesting.

Right.

The kratom plant contains different compounds called alkaloids.

Metragynine and 7-hydroxymetragynine, 7-OH, are two of the major psychoactive ingredients.

Metragynine binds to opioid receptors, but also things like serotonin receptors in the brain.

And in the kratom plant and in natural kratom leaf products, 7-OH shows up in tiny quantities.

But what about products that have higher concentrations of 7-OH?

What does that do to the brain?

7-OH does seem to bind more exclusively to opioid receptors in the brain, just like heroin, morphine, or fentanyl.

Your classic opioids.

Yeah.

That's Oliver Grundman.

He's a professor at University of Florida College of Pharmacy.

Yeah, the concern is that there are a lot of new 7-OH products popping up, like extracts and pills, that are much stronger than the Kratom products researchers have been studying for the last decade or so.

Got it.

Okay.

So 7-OH, it binds to opioid receptors.