One of the family members of the ice plant family, Sceletium is a succulent shrub that people have been consuming for years. The people in the traditional societies of South Africa, such as the San and Khoi people used to use the tincture form of Sceletium to satisfy their hunger and thirst. They also used it to alleviate pain and enhance mood.
There’s no two ways around it: these are very stressful times for the world at large. Even if your health is in check, the sheer amount of economic and societal uncertainty is enough to fuel many restless nights.
In an interesting fMRI study, acute administration of 25 mg of Zembrin, a proprietary preparation of Sceletium tortuosum, attenuated reactivity to fearful faces in the amygdala.
Kanna is the common name for sceletium tortuosum, a plant native to South Africa. Natively this plant has been known to be de-stressing, or at least help deal with situations of high stress.
Case studies on humans have also been reported. In one case 50 mg of Sceletium caused significant decreases in anxiety and improvements in mood and in another case the same does lifted mood and improved sociability. Sceletium plants produce a range of alkaloids that may explain their pharmacological activity. Sceletium tortuosum has been shown to contain a number of alkaloids including mesembrine, mesembrenine and mesembrine.