Tabernaemontana sananho

Active ingredients and effects
Sananga is said to contain an abundancy of alkaloids (Liu et al. 2013), It has been hinted that Sanaga includes the potent active ingredient is ibogaine (König et al. 2015), However this statement has yet to be sceintifically proven. Apart from ibogaine, several other alkaloids, such as coronaridine, quebrachidine, heyneanine, 3-hydroxycoronaridine, ibogamine and voacangine (Van Beek et al 1984; delle Monache et al. 1977) have been thought to also be contained in Sananga. All of these alkaloids have powerful psychoactive effects and a.o. can exert strong antibiotic effects.

There can be slight differences in the composition of Sananga: the Becchete from the Matsés tribe contains Tabernaemontana undulata roots, whereas the Sananga eye drops from the Kaxinawá tribe contains Kunakip (Tabernaemontana sananho) roots. Both of these roots are known to produce strong vision (waimatai) that are very useful for successful hunting (Jernigan 2009).