The iboga plant & its common names
Before ibogaine the molecule, there is iboga the plant — and most naming confusion begins right here.
Tabernanthe iboga is a slow-growing shrub in the dogbane family (Apocynaceae), native to the rainforests of Central-West Africa — Gabon, Cameroon, and the Congo Basin. Its yellow-tinged root bark is the traditional source material, and it is a chemically busy plant: the bark contains more than thirty alkaloids, of which ibogaine is simply the most abundant and best known.
That is the crucial point for naming. Iboga refers to this whole-plant material — a mixture — while ibogaine refers to one isolated molecule extracted or synthesised from it. Whole root bark and pure ibogaine are not interchangeable in strength, composition, or predictability, even though the two words are often used as if they were the same thing.
Common and traditional names
In Bwiti spiritual practice the plant is central to initiation and healing ceremonies, and it carries a cluster of common names across regions and languages. You will see it called iboga, eboka or eboga, and — more loosely — “bitter grass,” “leaf of God,” and “thie-pelakano.” All of these name the plant, not the isolated compound.
Root bark, freebase, salt
Once ibogaine is separated from the bark it appears either as a freebase or, more commonly in laboratories and clinics, as the hydrochloride salt — ibogaine HCl. And the bark’s other alkaloids don’t disappear from the conversation; they form a family of related iboga-type compounds that are frequently, and mistakenly, treated as synonyms for ibogaine.