The iboga world is rife with scammers, liars, and money lost in the black hole of commerce on the world wide web. I’m surprised at the number of Instagram accounts that “friend” me every week with a new vendor of iboga products with contact numbers often based out of Cameroon. Initially, I was curious to see who these contacts were. I would check their profiles and find stolen content. I found photos that I had taken, and others that were stolen from other popular profiles and websites. These fake accounts copy and paste stolen content to create a profile that looks like an iboga vendor. Often these accounts are created just to fool someone into sending money for an item that, most likely, will never arrive.
When navigating this endless world of Instagram and Facebook vendors, one has to be extremely careful, even with “reputed sellers” who have positive reviews. Not only are there scammers pandering directly to consumers purchasing extracts, there are scams to watch out for when buying raw iboga bark as well.
I had a friend receive decent bark from a vendor in Cameroon so I asked for the seller’s contact information so I could place an order to test quality. I received stem bark instead of root bark which has less than a fifth of the actual alkaloid content than the iboga root bark. This was another form of scam, which was new to me at the time, but for which I keep a sharp eye on now. That scam was a learning experience, which, I hope, all scams we fall victim to are for us.
As a matter of curiosity, for scientific or business nature, I always like to know what products are on the market and who is selling what. I have tested products from my own clients who have sent me samples of iboga bark which they bought from other sources just to see what people are buying and what is being sold. More times than not, the quality is subpar, with bark which is not iboga root bark but stem or trunk bark. There are even vendors out there selling voacanga bark, which is a completely different plant with different alkaloids which could be poisonous and even deadly. Unfortunately, there are treatment providers who inadvertently use voacanga bark for their clients because they were sold it instead of iboga bark. This is a danger to the community and something that cannot be regulated in our free and sometimes underground marketplace.
An additional measure of quality control I perform is an analysis on iboga bark quality across a plant’s lifespan. Iboga is farm grown and harvested during different years of growth. Each year may yield different alkaloid and ibogaine content. This analysis is not just a measure for safety, but also a general gathering of own scientific research surrounding my own sources of iboga. I have established and grown my own iboga plantations in Ghana and in Costa Rica, while also sponsoring farms in Cameroon. These analyses provide a clearer idea of alkaloid content development in the plant as it matures and grows. Since iboga is a slow growing plant, I test to find the best harvest time versus alkaloid/ibogaine content in the root bark.
When it comes to buying iboga root bark for my own use, I occasionally check sources for their quality, but mostly now stick to my tried and true sources who I have had a long relationship with, including farms in Cameroon, Ghana, and a new developing farm in Costa Rica. Since my background is in biology/botany/plantation establishment, I prefer to harvest from sustainable sources of iboga. It is important to choose a vendor who can tell you where they source from so that the clients have transparency in the product. I’m working on a new QR code system with a programmer friend do lock in the source of each farm raised iboga in the blockchain. This type of transparency is the future to control from source to sale.
Iboga bark is not the only scam to avoid when searching the internet for a source. I have seen poorly taken photos of white powder captioned as ibogaine HCL. The white powder is thrown in a heap on a piece of paper or a table with portions falling off the paper and thrown carelessly about as if not even accounted for. This is a huge red flag, as ibogaine HCL is an extremely precious product and anyone who produces it, knows to handle it carefully not not lose a single crystal. This presentation is another red flag when filtering out sellers on Instagram or Facebook. This is probably a short blueprint now for future scammers in what to avoid, but at least buyers can keep an eye out for these old tricks.
There are also old players in the game, like ibogaworld, whose products I’ve also tested, and have, unfortunately, also come out subpar with their TA measuring up to about 30-35%. I am regularly producing above 50% ibogaine content in my TA. A good quality product is difficult to find throughout all these possible hurdles and poor quality items made available to customers. There is definitely a problem with quality control in our small, but important, community of iboga providers. I regularly test the quality of my products, not only with my own percent yields and TLC (Thin Layer Chromatography) tests, but I also take my products to labs with heavy equipment to test through spectral analysis, allowing to see the exact amount of molecular content in a sample.
Now that I’ve given an overview as to what is available out there, you may say, “thanks, Adrian, for the heads up, but how do I buy high quality iboga and iboga products?” I like to simplify the process for my clients and offer a number of different payment & shipping methods to best fit client needs. There are old school methods still used by some in the industry (methods preferred by some clients) which include a direct bank transfer or some sort of Western Union company. I also accept these methods, but I think they are falling more and more out of favor with new buyers as there are high fees and could also lead to traceability inconveniences for buyers who desire more discretion. For those who desire the freedom of immediate and low cost transfer of funds, cryptocurrency has become the preferred method of payment for many clients. If you don’t have a cryptowallet or account, crypto ATMs are now widely available in most cities and can be used to transfer funds. Having your own crypto account with Coinbase, Kraken, or Gemini is also simple to open and use for transfer of funds. This method cannot be censored or stopped by a third party entity, such as a bank if you store your funds in your own wallet, offline. Other peer to peer money transfers can also be accommodate.
If you have any other questions concerning purchasing, you can contact me directly through any messaging app or email, [email protected].
The main point here is to be very careful with who is offering you iboga products, and do not get lost in the payments of these items, as sellers can get you wound up in the endless excuses of needing a payment then more payment, then lost item, then never hear from them again. Iboteca places a priority on customer/client service, and will help with any inquiries you may have in what sometimes does not seem like an obvious environment to find what you need.
Iboteca does not have a buy button on the website because we want to know our clients in complete confidentiality. We open inquiries to all, but we also are very strict with who we work with to mitigate undesirable situations. That being said, we have an open door policy for questions, thoughts, and concerns at any time.