Whether you just bought your first bag or you've been using kratom for years without really understanding what's in it, this page will walk you through what you need to know.
Kratom is a tropical tree (Mitragyna speciosa) native to Southeast Asia. The leaves contain alkaloids that interact with opioid receptors. At low doses it tends to be stimulating; at higher doses it becomes sedating and analgesic. It is not "just an herb" and it is not "basically an opioid." It's its own thing, with its own risk profile. Start by understanding the basics before you touch anything else.
Read the Kratom Basics guidePlain leaf powder and concentrated extracts are completely different animals. Extracts isolate specific alkaloids (MIT, 7-OH) and concentrate them to levels that plain leaf never reaches. This is where people get into trouble. A 50x extract doesn't mean "50 times stronger" in the way you think. Understanding this distinction is critical before you buy anything from a smoke shop shelf.
MIT Guide7-Hydroxymitragynine is the alkaloid that makes extracts potent and potentially dangerous. It's roughly 13x more potent than morphine at the receptor level. Many extract products are essentially concentrated 7-OH delivery systems, and the labels are frequently inaccurate. This is the single most important thing to understand if you're using any extract product.
7-OH GuideA COA is a lab report that tells you what's actually in a product. It shows the real alkaloid percentages, checks for contaminants like heavy metals and bacteria, and verifies (or contradicts) whatever the label claims. If a vendor can't produce a current COA for their product, that's a red flag. Learning to read one takes five minutes and could save you a lot of trouble.
COA section in the 7-OH guideOnce you know what you're taking and what its potency is, use the calculators to figure out your actual dose. "I took a scoop" is not a dose. Milligrams of active alkaloid is a dose. The tools on this site will help you convert what's on the label (or on the COA) into a real number you can work with.
Open the Potency CalculatorKratom can cause physical dependence with regular use. This isn't scare tactics; it's pharmacology. Understanding how tolerance builds, what withdrawal looks like, and how to taper properly is important whether you use daily or just want to be informed. The more you know upfront, the less likely you are to end up in a bad situation.
Tolerance & Tapering guideBrowse the full guides or jump straight to the tools. Everything is free, no accounts required.