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✦ Kanna · in one breath ✦
The empathic activator of the oldest people — the flower of gentle truth.
⊹ The path of the plant
⊹ Community voices
What the community murmurs.
Average · 210 reviews
Breakdown
Items received packaged very well and the quality is great.
2Infinity
Ritual · 8 October 2021
Fantastic! Exquisitely well packaged and labeled, with faster than expected shipping to Canada. The kanna is of exceedingly good quality and remarkably potent (my favorite, having also tried MT-55, non-patented extracts and fermented kanna from a variety of purveyors). The free sample was very much appreciated and well thought out in terms of being exactly in-line with what I was seeking! Totally recommend. Thanks a lot, looking forward to ordering again!
Lockhart
Ritual · 19 December 2022
Truly a brilliant herb! It has helped almost immediately with my mood and general concentration (I suffer from chronic depression and anxiety). Amazing stuff, 10/10
Deko
Ritual · 11 June 2024
Ask the Forest about Kanna
276 books digested, 90,000 indexed passages. She answers on lineages, synergies, cautions, ritual variations.
The community space of Kanna.
Voices, circles, practitioners, offerings — gathered around this plant.
Enter the Temple →⊹ FREQUENT QUESTIONS ⊹
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What is kanna?
Kanna is the fermented heart-opener of the Khoisan — the word comes from the Khoikhoi language, short and dense, while the Afrikaans kougoed ("the thing to chew") names the act. Botanically she is Sceletium tortuosum, a succulent of the Aizoaceae family from South Africa, whose leaves are fermented for several days before use: a soft, social, non-visionary psychoactive that relaxes emotional defences rather than altering perception.
What are the felt effects of kanna?
Traditional uses and contemporary reports describe a social warmth, an opening of the heart, a freer word and a lighter mood. Kanna is the teacher of moderation — small regular doses are rewarded, excess becomes nauseating and flat. These are reported effects, not a medical use.
How do I consume fermented kanna?
The softest way is the infusion — about a teaspoon of finely minced fermented leaves in a cup of simmering water (never boiling), 10 minutes, strained. The same leaves can be chewed or sprinkled in a smoking blend. Start low — kanna rewards measure.
Is kanna compatible with antidepressants (SSRI, MAOI)?
No — this is the most important precaution. Kanna acts on serotonin; combined with serotonergic antidepressants (SSRI, SNRI, MAOI, tricyclics), tramadol, triptans, lithium or MDMA, she exposes to a risk of potentially serious serotonin syndrome. Imperatively seek medical advice before any use if you take these treatments.
Can kanna replace alcohol?
Many use her this way. Kanna offers a convivial warmth and a more open word without the foggy effect or the difficult return of alcohol. She replaces it rather than accompanying it — the combination of kanna and alcohol is traditionally avoided.
Why is kanna fermented?
Fermentation is the medicine. The fresh leaves are crushed, placed in the sun for several days, then dried — an enzymatic process that transforms the alkaloid profile and softens the plant. It is a Khoisan cultural technology, comparable to the nixtamalisation of maize — without her, the plant is more irritating and unbalanced.
Does kanna create dependence?
Kanna is often described as one of the rare psychoactive plants that actively dissuades from abuse — at excessive dose, the effect becomes unpleasant and flat. Traditional wisdom favours small regular doses and short cures with pauses, never escalation.
Where does INFUSE's kanna come from?
Our fermented kanna leaves come from South Africa, land of origin of the plant, and are laboratory-controlled in France. The model of benefit-sharing with the South African San Council remains the ethical reference for this plant.
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In depthbotany · phytochemistry · history
### Botany — a succulent of the South African desert
Kanna is Sceletium tortuosum, of the family Aizoaceae (the "iceplants" or ficoids), a lineage of succulents adapted to the arid soils of South Africa (Schultes, Hofmann & Rätsch, Plants of the Gods, p. 55-56). Recent taxonomy has sometimes reclassified her under Mesembryanthemum tortuosum — both names designate the same plant. She is a low, creeping succulent with fleshy leaves, whose genus name Sceletium refers to the "skeletal" veins visible on the dried leaves. Her common Afrikaans name, kougoed, means "thing to chew".
### Descriptive phytochemistry — the mesembrine alkaloids
The active principles of kanna are mesembrine-type alkaloids: mesembrine, mesembrenone, mesembrenol, and more minor compounds (tortuosamine, channaine, hordenine). Schultes-Hofmann note that these alkaloids of the Mesembryanthemaceae possess a documented sedative activity (Plants of the Gods, p. 71; see also Rätsch & Müller-Ebeling, Encyclopedia of Aphrodisiacs, p. 378-379).
The fermentation does not only preserve the plant: she recomposes her chemical profile. Over the days of sun exposure, mesembrine is progressively transformed, and the balance of alkaloids shifts. This is why traditional fermentation is described as inseparable from the medicine — the simply dried plant does not have the same profile. The pharmacology of the Mesembryanthemaceae was reviewed in the Journal of Ethnopharmacology (50:119-30), cited by Rätsch.
### What the studies report
Kanna is one of the rare plants that Rätsch ranks among the major non-hallucinogenic psychoactives — a sparsely populated category. Contemporary research describes several mechanisms: a serotonin reuptake inhibition (SSRI-like effect), a phosphodiesterase-4 (PDE4) inhibition, and an action on acetylcholinesterase. An fMRI study published in 2013 on a Sceletium extract reports an attenuation of amygdala reactivity to fearful faces and a modulation of amygdala-hypothalamus connectivity; another study reports, on a low-dose standardised extract, positive changes on executive function, mood and sleep compared to placebo.
These data are descriptive and preliminary: they describe laboratory and imaging observations, not a medical use nor a promise of efficacy. Kanna is not a medicine and does not replace any treatment.
### Critical safety note — serotonin
Because kanna acts on serotonin, she must never be combined with serotonergic antidepressants (SSRI, SNRI, MAOI, tricyclics), tramadol, triptans, lithium or MDMA: the cumulation exposes to a potentially serious serotonin syndrome. This precaution is not an excess of caution — it is the real pharmacology of the plant. After stopping an antidepressant, a washout window of several weeks is necessary before considering kanna, and always with medical advice.
### Long lineage — the oldest people
The Khoisan — which gathers the San (hunter-gatherers) and the Khoikhoi (pastoralists) — count among the oldest continuously living human cultures, with a genetic lineage traced over more than a hundred thousand years. To receive kanna is to enter a transmission that precedes writing, agriculture and the first cities.
The plant is linked to the eland, the largest antelope of Africa, animal of divination and transformation in San cosmology. The rock paintings of the Drakensberg, several millennia old, depict healers in trance under the features of the eland — the walk between the worlds. In the ethnographic documentation (Pendell, Pharmako/Gnosis, p. 338-339; Rätsch & Müller-Ebeling, p. 378), kanna appears in the trance dances, in social communion, in erotic use and in the restoration of the bereaved, sometimes combined with dagga (cannabis).
### Modern history — from oblivion to rediscovery
After the colonial mentions of van Riebeeck (1662) and van der Stel (1685), and the enthusiasm attributed to Thunberg in the 18th century, kanna disappears from the European materia medica for nearly two centuries. Her rediscovery at the end of the 20th century culminates with the development of the standardised extract Zembrin by HG&H Pharmaceuticals, marketed under a benefit-sharing agreement with the South African San Council — a precedent often cited in matters of bioprospecting respectful of indigenous sovereignty.
### Safety and use
Beyond the major serotonergic contraindication, kanna asks for measure. At excessive dose, reports describe nausea, dizziness, headaches and an emotional flattening that follows the peak — the plant "punishes greed". The wisdom of use favours small regular doses and short cures with pauses rather than large occasional intakes. Kanna is, among the psychoactive plants, one of the rare ones that actively discourages her own abuse.
« Every plant is a door. Kanna opens onto a long companionship — listen to it more than you measure it. »