How can you test iboga root bark yourself?

11 October 2026

Here is a step-by-step guide for home:

Start by grinding the root bark very finely.
Put the powder into a container such as a glass jar, a ceramic bowl or a plastic bucket. Now add enough vinegar to cover the powder completely. It is better to use a little more vinegar than too little, to make sure that all alkaloids are extracted.

Now mix the solution thoroughly, several times, to make sure that all alkaloids are converted into their salt form. Optionally, you can leave the mixture in the dark overnight or longer. Then filter out the solid plant material with a coffee filter, a cloth or a T-shirt and collect the liquid in a second container, ideally a glass container, so you can check the solution.

Now a base is added. Any base is suitable. Ammonium hydroxide is ideal, because it evaporates easily afterwards. If you have trouble finding food-grade ammonium hydroxide, sodium carbonate is a good alternative. Sodium carbonate can be made from sodium bicarbonate by heating the bicarbonate to 50 °C. This can be done in a metal pot or in solution. When you add sodium carbonate, you will see foaming (fizzing). This means there is acid in the solution. So keep adding sodium carbonate until the foaming stops. That means all the acid has been neutralised. At the point where the foaming stops, the alkaloids should start to precipitate. Add enough bicarbonate until all alkaloids have precipitated. The precipitated alkaloids may appear as black flakes or brown powder.

The alkaloids can then be filtered with a suitable filter (for example a normal coffee filter) and dried in a calcium chloride drying chamber. Since nobody has one at home, here is a trick: simply put calcium chloride into a bowl, place a piece of tin foil on the calcium chloride, put the alkaloids on the tin foil and then seal the bowl with some cling film. This process can take a while until everything is completely dry.

After that, the dried powder can be weighed to determine the iboga content. For example, if a total of 3 g of total alkaloids was extracted from 100 g of root bark, the bark is said to have 3 %.

You can also watch the instructions as a clip on our YouTube channel.