Khat

Plant Medicine, Excitantia, Cathinone source

Khat

Catha edulis. Chat, qat, the Flower of Paradise

Khat is the fresh leaf of Catha edulis (Celastraceae), chewed daily by a large fraction of the population in Yemen, Somalia, Ethiopia, and the Horn of Africa. Cathinone is roughly equivalent to ~5 mg methamphetamine per chewing session, but more euphoric and short-acting. Yemen devotes ~40% of its arable land to khat cultivation.

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See also

Methcathinone, Amphetamine, Cathinone

References

Summary

Classes

Plant Medicine, Excitantia, Cathinone source

Common uses

Alertness▲0▼, Social stimulant▲0▼

Pharmacy

Starting dose

A marduuf bundle (~50 g fresh leaves) chewed over a couple of hours

Preparations

Fresh leaves and tender twigs chewed; degrades on drying

Pharmacology

Routes

Oral (buccal absorption)

Onset

15–30 min

Duration

2–4 h

Legal status

Schedule I in US since 1993 (despite traditional use elsewhere); legal in Ethiopia, Kenya, Yemen, Somalia, Djibouti

Purported mechanism

Primary alkaloid is (S)-(-)-cathinone, a phenylpropanolamine close kin to amphetamine. Releases dopamine and norepinephrine. Also contains cathine (=norpseudoephedrine) and norephedrine.

“Pendell's corner

In the Horn of Africa and across the Yemeni highlands, the leaf is chewed fresh — the alkaloids are unstable, the harvest is daily, the social rhythm of the chew is the substance of an afternoon. Cathinone is amphetamine's older, gentler cousin; the leaf is its old, gentler context. Out of context — extracted, exported, dried — the leaf is a different relationship.

— Dale Pendell, Pharmako/Dynamis
curated paraphrase — replace with verbatim passage