I have been interested in Iboga and ibogaine for some time, but do to unjust US drug policy am unable to procure the plant or substance.

To get around this, I began looking into Voacanga africana as an alternative. When I was mass-purchasing all the ethnobotanicals I thought I'd need for the year, I got a few ounces of the rootbark, seeing as the vendor I was using did not stock seeds. Now, I cannot seem to find any information on the preparation of the root bark. I have been considering just brewing up some of it, by increasing the dosage in relation to the ~8% alkaloid difference between the seeds and rootbark; but I am wary of doing this, due to the possible *toxic* effects of the plant...

long story short, anybody have experience with preparing V. africana rootbark?

Keep doses low with voacanga, it has very uncomfortable side-effects in high doses. It is not a replacement for a high dose iboga experience. That said, it does give a nice electric feel and has many of the same benefits of low dose iboga in smaller doses.

I'd say your best bet with this material would be to make a tea and micro-dose a small amount each day for a couple weeks or so, which should let the desired alkaloids build up in the system a bit, but discontinue use before too long so as not too let too much of the undesirable/toxic alkaloids build up. It can also be smoked for similar effects to smoked iboga, smoking wood is never very pleasant though.

hope that helps.

Are there extraction teks for this plant?

Check out the iboga non toxic tek.
You might try a STB with d-limo on it.
But so far the extract wasn't leading me anywhere.
So I'm left with rootbark and still don't know if I build tolearnce too fast and too long.
Or if the extract (golden crystalz-nice one) isn't very stable...

Good luck and please report back !

Last night I masticated a "small handful" of the stuff, and within 20-40 minutes I was feeling a distinct, powerful stimulation. Within the hour, it had progressed beyond stimulation to just pure... intensity. It was really like the only desirous situation would be loud chanting and banging on drums, or perhaps stalking game at night for long hours. I felt an overwhelming need to do something, but there was an oppressive body load keeping me glued to the chair (this could have something to do with kratom use earlier in the night, or my practically constant cannabis use).

By an hour and a half, I began to develop a hypnotic stare with slight frenetic fractal visuals concentrated in the point at which I was staring. I began having "enlightened thoughts", or just more clear thoughts, about my wife and my future and how to best achieve spiritual wholeness and to act without acting. With closed eyes, distinct blue-grey waves of formless glowing shape, with iridescent skin came pouring over me. Later, I went to bed, and the closed eye-visuals increased in stature, but never got close to overwhelming or arresting. That was to be expected with such a low dose of the rootbark.

After an hour or so laying in bed, the visions subsided, and I don't remember being tired but suddenly deeply asleep. This morning I was refreshed, energized, ready for the day. And a funny thing, when my wife offered me a cigarette, I said no! Not like I had had a spiritual awakening that caused me to think about my tobacco use and it's negative impact on my life- I just really didn't want one! This "non-desire" was eventually outweighed by a force equally insidious as physical dependance, psychological habituation. So, I smoked one, and another and another as usual; but not because I physically craved it, I have just habituated myself so that I always feel as though I am in need of it.

Higher dose experiments and extractions are sure to be more interesting.

A friend in the Iboga community suggested this to me: Dr. Chris Jenks' Iboga Extraction

Could you be more specific? As of yet, I have found zero information pertaining to dosage, preparation, admixture, traditional use, or anything that would be useful to a non-chemist.

Hence the "small handful" dose I used.

I made an infusion of ~1 cup of rootbark,
boiled it down to a reasonable amount of liquid,
filtered out the used bark.

I divided the ~1 1/2 cup remaining liquid into three more manageable "shots", and took them spaced 30 minutes apart from each other. The taste was hot, acrid. It gave a similar sensation as black pepper- not spicy, but almost physically heated. Whatever, you've all eaten black pepper.
The first shot: barely stopped myself from vomiting as soon as the brew hit my throat.
Second shot: intense aversion to the smell and sight of even the small amount of liquid I was about to consume. Somehow (!) I got it down easier than the first.
Third shot: I microwaved the now cold remainder of the brew, which was full of ultra-bitter particulate that my kitchen strainer didn't catch, illustrating my need of proper equipment or to develop a shamans gut. The aversion to this strong-smelling steaming shot was a bit overpowering, even the sight of it twisted my stomach into knots. I took the shot into the bathroom, preparing for the inevitable purge, and decided it would be a good idea to use dark chocolate almond milk to wash my mouth out afterwards. Um... Anyway, the moment it hit my tongue, my stomach writhed in revolt and I was forced to spit the shit out immediately. I had to stand in front of the toilet for a few minutes and will myself to not vomit my guts.

Effects?

Again powerful stimulation,
but it's an uncomfortable stimulation.

No aesthetic improvement, no hallucinations whatsoever. I was significantly more goofy.
It's not that it wasn't fun, but it didn't really appear like a teacher would.

But, the dose could be low,
and I didn't even get it all down.

Voacanga, it seems, is one of those elusive teachers.

dude really,a FOAF said me that he hod a very hard experience with it,very strong,you must increase the dose prolly,has you read somewhere the average dosage of it? maybe it could vary from a batch to another but from your description it seems you aren't tooking enough,from what swim remembers it reallly make you difficult to muve when it works, he was stucked in the place when he tried it

yeah well, as I stated before in the thread, there is very little information regarding correct dosage or traditional use; however, I have found alkaloidal comparisons between the seeds and the rootbark, with the seeds having around 10 % voacanga alkaloids and the rootbark containing more like 2%.

I am quickly losing hope of any helpfulness being associated with this plant.

This is not to say that it isn't psychoactive- every time I have experimented with it I have experienced profound stimulation and clearly psychedelic spaceyness, but only slight visuals that have to be earnestly sought out to exist at all. No revelations, nothing of that nature.

Perhaps at some point I will experiment with the seeds or extracting the alkaloids, but at this point I don't care enough to explore Voacanga africana anymore.

Nobody seemed really lucky with it...