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©The Author(s) 2022. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Pharmacol. Nov 28, 2022; 11(3): 16-26
Published online Nov 28, 2022. doi: 10.5497/wjp.v11.i3.16
Published online Nov 28, 2022. doi: 10.5497/wjp.v11.i3.16
Controversial usages of kratom (Mitragyna speciosa): For good or for evil
Murtadha Basheer, Rana Khudhair Jasim, Gam Lay Harn, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Minden 11800, Penang, Malaysia
Author contributions: Basheer M and Khudhair Jasim R prepared the content of the manuscript; Gam LH wrote and edited the manuscript.
Supported by Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia for the Fundamental Research Grant Scheme , No. FRGS/1/2020/STG02/USM/01/1 .
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report having no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Gam Lay Harn, PhD, Professor, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia, 11800 USM, Minden 11800, Penang, Malaysia. layharn@usm.my
Received: July 15, 2022
Peer-review started: July 15, 2022
First decision: September 26, 2022
Revised: October 4, 2022
Accepted: November 23, 2022
Article in press: November 23, 2022
Published online: November 28, 2022
Peer-review started: July 15, 2022
First decision: September 26, 2022
Revised: October 4, 2022
Accepted: November 23, 2022
Article in press: November 23, 2022
Published online: November 28, 2022
Core Tip
Core Tip: Traditionally, people discovered kratom (Mitragyna speciosa) possessed a stimulating effect that relieved tiredness. Long term or regular consumption of kratom leads to addiction because the main alkaloid of kratom binds to opioid receptors and exerts a euphoric effect. Due to this reason, kratom has been listed as a regulated substance in many countries. Despite the euphoric effect of kratom, the beneficial values of kratom to human health is indisputable. Therefore, a complete banning of kratom may cause a loss to pharmaceutical industry. Rather, a controlled or selective usage of kratom will be a better choice.