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Herbs, botanicals and traditional plant remedies, with the label facts made plain

What is kratom?

By MountainSageNaturalHealth.com Editorial Team

What Is Kratom? The Short Answer

Kratom is both a plant and a product category. The plant is Mitragyna speciosa, a tropical tree in the coffee family, native to Southeast Asia. On a product label, “kratom” usually means material from that tree’s leaves, sold as powder, capsules, tea-type preparations or liquid extract. People in Southeast Asia have used the leaves for a long time, and that history is real. But history is context, not proof of safety or benefit.

This page explains what the word covers, how U.S. agencies describe kratom’s status, what label terms can and cannot tell you, and where the research runs out. It does not explain how to take kratom and makes no promise about benefits. Affiliate disclosure: For clarity, this page contains affiliate links. The editors may earn a commission if you buy through them. Your price is the same either way.

Is Kratom a Supplement or a Drug?

The answer depends on which question you mean: how kratom is sold, how it is regulated, or whether it is federally controlled.

How it is sold. The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) notes that kratom products made from the leaves are marketed as herbal supplements.

How it is regulated. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) does not accept that framing. On its kratom page, FDA says kratom is not lawfully marketed in the United States as a drug, a dietary supplement, or a food additive in conventional food. FDA says there are no prescription or over-the-counter kratom drug products legally on the market. Its reasoning on supplements is that kratom is a “new dietary ingredient” (one not marketed as a supplement ingredient before 1994, according to the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, or NCCIH), and that the available information does not give reasonable assurance it is free of significant or unreasonable risk of illness or injury. FDA has warned consumers not to use kratom because of the risk of serious adverse events.

Whether it is federally controlled. NIDA and NCCIH both say kratom is currently legal and accessible in many areas of the United States, that the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) lists it as a “drug of concern,” and that kratom itself is not on the federal schedule of controlled substances. FDA notes that states may have their own regulations or prohibitions, and NIDA says several countries have banned or restricted kratom. Federal, state and local rules differ, so “legal to sell” and “lawful as a supplement” are not the same statement.

The 7-OH exception. 7-hydroxymitragynine, shortened to 7-OH, occurs naturally in the leaf, but FDA calls it a minor constituent, under 2% of the total alkaloid content of natural leaf. Products built around concentrated or synthetic 7-OH are treated as a separate concern. On July 1, 2026, the DEA announced its intent to temporarily place 7-OH above a proposed threshold, plus three related compounds that do not occur naturally in the plant, in Schedule I. According to a Congressional Research Service legal sidebar updated October 6, 2026, the three related compounds were scheduled by final order effective August 26, 2026, while the 7-OH proposal had not been finalized, so 7-OH was not yet a controlled substance. FDA and DEA both say these actions target concentrated and synthetic products, not natural kratom leaf with only trace 7-OH. This area is moving, so check the FDA 7-OH page and DEA announcements for current status.

What Is Mitragyna speciosa?

NCCIH describes kratom as a tree in the coffee family found in Thailand and neighboring countries. Traditionally in Southeast Asia, people have chewed the leaves or made them into a tea used to fight fatigue and improve work productivity. NCCIH adds that kratom has also been used in religious ceremonies and for symptoms such as pain and diarrhea, sometimes as a substitute for opium. NIDA, citing anthropologists, says this use goes back hundreds of years.

The leaves contain many alkaloids, which NIDA describes as bioactive plant compounds that can affect the body. FDA says kratom contains more than 50 of them, and that most research focuses on two: mitragynine and 7-OH. NIDA says mitragynine is found in the leaf and breaks down into 7-OH in the body during digestion. Both activate mu-opioid receptors, which are structures on the surface of nerve cells that opioid drugs also act on. NIDA says the resulting effects only partly resemble those of opioids such as heroin or oxycodone, and that mitragynine appears to act on other brain systems too, including serotonin and dopamine pathways.

People who use kratom have reported both stimulant-like effects (more energy and alertness, a faster heart rate) and effects like those of opioids and sedatives (relaxation, pain relief, confusion), according to NCCIH and NIDA. NIDA says studies have not established that these effects depend on how much is taken or how. In plain terms, the plant’s name alone cannot tell you what a particular product will do.

What Does “Kratom” Mean on a Label?

Because the word covers a plant, a powder, an extract and a marketing vocabulary, a label is worth reading slowly. These are the terms you are most likely to meet, with what each one can and cannot tell you.

  • Botanical name. Look for Mitragyna speciosa and the plant part, such as leaf. The Latin name is a more precise identifier than a common name (our editorial view). Either way, it only tells you what the maker says the plant is, not what is in the container.
  • Product form. NIDA describes raw plant material in powder or capsule form, brewed leaf tea, and liquid kratom extract. NIDA says effects can depend on the formulation, the way it is taken, other drugs in a person’s system, underlying medical conditions and prior experience, which is part of why they are hard to predict.
  • Named alkaloids. A label that names mitragynine or 7-OH, or gives a percentage, is a statement from the maker. None of the agency pages reviewed here says what such a figure means for any person’s experience, so treat it as a claim to ask about rather than a measure you can rely on. FDA treats concentrated 7-OH products as a separate concern from natural leaf.
  • “Lab tested” or “third-party tested.” Ask who tested it, what the test measured and which batch it covers. This matters for kratom in particular: FDA has warned the public about kratom products contaminated with Salmonella and concerning levels of heavy metals, and NIDA reports similar contamination findings. Our guide on what third-party testing can and cannot tell you about botanicals explains why a test of contents is not a statement about safety for you.
  • Color or “strain” names. Terms such as red, green or white appear in some kratom marketing. None of the agency pages reviewed here defines them or ties them to measured outcomes, so read them as marketing labels.
  • Benefit claims. FDA says it takes action against companies that make false or misleading claims about unproven kratom benefits. A label or page that promises results is a reason for more caution.

For the general skills behind all of this, see our guide on how to read an herbal supplement label for safety information.

What the Evidence Cannot Tell Us

Kratom is widely discussed and thinly studied in people. NCCIH says very little research in people has evaluated its health effects, and FDA says there are published animal studies but few reports from well-designed human studies. Here is what that means in practice.

  • Much of what is known comes from surveys, case reports, poison-center data and lab or animal work. These can show that something happened to someone, but they cannot show that kratom caused it.
  • Competing explanations are common. NIDA says many people who use kratom also use other drugs and take prescribed medicines. FDA says rare deaths associated with kratom usually involved other drugs, so kratom’s contribution is unclear. NIDA says nearly all such cases involved other drugs or contaminants, and that fatal overdose from kratom alone appears extremely rare.
  • Safety concerns are real but not fully mapped. FDA warns about liver toxicity, seizures and substance use disorder. NIDA says people have reported mild effects such as nausea, constipation, dizziness and drowsiness, and case reports describe rare but serious effects, including confusion, tremors and seizures, high blood pressure, slow breathing, and liver problems. NIDA says long-term effects are not well understood, and that effects on driving and other tasks that are dangerous when impaired have not been extensively studied.
  • Dependence risk is still being sorted out. FDA says some people have developed substance use disorder after kratom use, and that a well-designed human abuse-potential study has not been done (it awarded a grant for one in September 2024). NIDA says the main compounds act on receptors tied to addictive drugs, though researchers have observed that the way they activate them may lower addiction potential compared with opioids. NIDA adds that the standard psychiatric diagnostic manual has no kratom-specific diagnosis, that studies suggest mild to moderate withdrawal symptoms when regular use stops, and that more research is needed.
  • Pregnancy is poorly studied. NIDA reports very little research, along with case reports of opioid-like withdrawal in newborns of women who regularly used kratom, and says many such cases likely involved other substances too.
  • Findings do not transfer cleanly between products. FDA says results from its own studies will need to be read against the many varied kratom products on the market.
  • Reasons for use are reports, not proof. People report using kratom for pain, mood, fatigue, and to manage withdrawal and cravings. NIDA and NCCIH both say kratom has not been shown to be safe and effective for any medical use. NIDA also notes that approved medications exist for withdrawal and cravings tied to opioid use disorder.
  • Use estimates are imprecise. NIDA cites a national survey estimate of about 1.7 million people aged 12 and older (0.6%) using kratom in the past year in 2021, and notes that estimates of regular use vary and that the pandemic affected that survey’s data collection.

What to Do Next

This page is meant to help you ask better questions, not to settle a personal decision. These steps do not depend on any product.

  1. Write down what you take. List every prescription, over-the-counter medicine, supplement and herb, with exact product names. Our guide to herb and medicine lists for a safer pharmacist conversation shows how to build one.
  2. Bring your questions to a pharmacist or clinician. Useful ones: Does anything I take raise a concern alongside kratom? Do my liver, heart or mental health history change the picture? Does pregnancy, breastfeeding, or planning for either, change the answer? What should I watch for, and who should I call?
  3. Check the rules where you live. FDA says state health and law enforcement agencies are the best resource on state law.
  4. Know where to turn if something goes wrong. For a possible poisoning or bad reaction, the Poison Help line is 1-800-222-1222, and in an emergency call 911. You can report a bad reaction to FDA through its MedWatch program. If kratom use feels hard to control, NIDA lists the SAMHSA National Helpline at 1-800-662-4357.

Sources and Limits

We opened these pages on October 9, 2026. Rules and web pages change, so check the originals for current details.

We did not open the Federal Register notices themselves, the underlying studies the agency pages cite, the survey report behind the 2021 use estimate, the World Health Organization’s kratom review, or FDA’s 7-OH scientific report. Statements about those documents rely on the agency pages that describe them. This article describes the plant, label vocabulary and state of the evidence in general. It does not evaluate any product, seller or person’s situation, and it does not recommend using kratom.

This article is general education and is not medical or legal advice. Talk with a pharmacist or qualified health care provider about your own medicines, conditions and circumstances.