This endemic shrub of the Congo basin forest, a lung of Central Africa, is inseparable from Gabon of traditional Bwiti spirituality, where it is used during ceremonies, reduced to hallucinogenic powder drawn from its root.
However, several university studies have demonstrated the effectiveness of ibogaine, one of its active ingredients, to deal with drug dependencies, post-traumatic stress and neurodegenerative diseases, leading to an increasing interest in medicine and the pharmaceutical industry.
In Gabon, where iboga exports are rare and strictly framed, the plant remains mainly “wild or cultivated for traditional use“, even if “Efforts multiply to domesticate the plant“Explains Florence Minko, from the Ministry of Water and Forests.
“Transformation power”
The Moungongo melody, a traditional Gabonese harp, accompanies the initiate procession in a ritual prior to the harvest of the Iboga root in Ndossi Village, near Libreville.
Among them, Teddy Van Bonda Ndong, 31 years old and initiated in the Bwiti since his nine years, has consumed “sacred wood” during ceremonies, but also in small quantities, almost daily, ensuring to remove “virtues for his mental and physical health”.
It is to experiment “transformation power“From the plant that Stephen Windsor-Clive, a 68-year-old retiree, traveled from the United Kingdom to Gabon. His 37-year-old daughter suffers from mental disorders and after 10 years of medical wandering and several hospitalizations, the IBOGA he discovered online is”His last attempt“He confides to AFP.
After 10 days of initiation to the Bwiti, during which man consumed the substance accompanied by Tatayo, the “Nganga” or spiritual guide of the Ebando community in Libreville, the English retiree wants “bring this experience to (his) daughter“, convinced that one”mysterious force lies in this plant to help many spheres of human consciousness“.
Sitting at the foot of a cheese maker with a midnight blue trunk, Tafara Kennedy Chinyere, an artist from Zimbabwe to learn Tatayo, says he is peaceful: “I feel good in my body, and my mind. (…) I have come to realize that certain things have no place in my existence“He said, evoking his” anxiety “.
Foreign patents
Doctor Gabonese Microbiologist, initiated at the Bwiti, Yoan Mboussou manufactures in his small laboratory not far from Libreville to 500 mg capsules of Iboga, marketed in Gabon as “anti-fatigue, antioxidant and anti-addictive” food supplement.
A product for which he hopes to obtain an export authorization, convinced that IBOGA is a “potential lever to develop the economy and the whole country”.
“”Today, the economic potential from Iboga clearly escapes Gabon“, Regrets Yann Guignon, a Franco-Gabonese specialist in the NGO Blessing of the Forest, who believes that the plant could, among other things, respond to the” opiate crisis “or the” suicides of war veterans “in the United States.
A hypothesis confirmed by a study by the American University of Stanford, which indicates in 2024 that ibogaine, “Associated with magnesium to protect the heart, effectively and safely reduces post-traumatic stress syndrome, anxiety, depression, and improves the well-being of veterans suffering from a head trauma“.
IBOGA remains considered an amazing in France or in the United States due to health risks. In the Netherlands, Mexico or Portugal, treatment centers at ibogaine or iboga have been developing for several years.
Dozens of foreign patents were filed on the therapeutic application of ibogaine, in fact excluding Gabon, although “Most come from the study of the use of iboga by Gabonese, in particular Bwitist traditionalists“, According to Mr. Guignon.
Especially since it is possible to produce synthetic ibogaine or to orient yourself towards other plants, such as Voacanga Africana, available in greater quantity in “Mexico or Ghana in order to produce ibogaine at prices defying all competitions “he explains.
Made in Gabon
“”Gabon loses enormously, because it has not positioned itself in time on this market by developing substantial Iboga plantations, a national transformation laboratory and a real industrial policy“says Mr. Guignon, who deplores the absence of” intellectual property “for”protect traditional knowledge“.
A single structure has the authorization to export IBOGA out of Gabon.
But this number should grow in the coming years because “economic operators are engaged in a production for commercial purposes according to the Nagoya protocol”, ratified by Gabon in 2012 to ensure “fair redistribution” of profits, explains Florence Minko.
“”We have written a national conservation and sustainable use strategy of the product” And “Assizes that will bring together all parties: NGOs, traditionalists, scientists, will soon be organized“, She says.
“”It’s a huge resource for Gabon“She said, enthusiastic, calling for creating an” geographic indication “for an” Iboga made in Gabon “.