What is Kratom: Literally Everything You Need to Know

Did a friend recently share their kratom experiences with you? Or maybe you heard about it online and are curious. Regardless, I’ll be sharing with you what kratom is and everything else you need to know to become familiar with this amazing plant. 

Kratom, also known as Mitragyna Speciosa in scientific terms, is a plant from Southeast Asia that has been used for its wide variety of benefits by the natives for many years.

Kratom can be abundantly found in countries like Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, and Indonesia, the latter being responsible for 95% of all kratom exports worldwide.
According to wikipedia, kratom is an evergreen tree which can grow to a height of25ft and boast a 3ft diameter trunk. It is part of the Rubiaceae family and thus, related to coffee.

The trees’ leaves contain two special alkaloids known as Mitragynine and 7-Hydroxymitragynine. The higher the concentration of alkaloids per leaf, the more potent the strain. 

Kratom can be found in four different colors including:

• Red Strain
• Green Strain
• White Strain
• Yellow/gold Strain

Green strains are actually a hybrid mix of red and white strains.

Strains sharing the same color tend to have more in common than strains which share the same name, and differ mostly in potency.

For example,White BorneoandWhite Baliwill have more in common than White Borneo and Red Borneo.

Strains are variations which exist within each color. For example, red strains can includeRed Borneo,Red Elephant, andRed Vietnam. The same applies to the other colors.

The name of the strain is usually provided for based on the location where it was founded. Hence, we know thatGreen Borneowas founded on the Indonesian island of Borneo.

However, strains like Trainwreck, that have nothing to do with location, do exist.
The total number of kratom strains currently on the market have not been confirmed, but if I had to guess, I’d say it’d be anywhere from 70-80 different strains.