1. Background This article focuses on khat production and its trade, (particularly in northern Kenya), its background, magnitude and structure. The study is based on fieldwork in the area during 1973 and 1974 and some follow-up visits there and in neighbouring countries. The "present tense" in the paper normally refers to a situation some five years ago which might have changed. The perspective...

BACKGROUND Use of psychoactive drugs such as khat leaves (Catha edulis) alter moods and emotional state and lead to adverse effects on the health and social life of users. Ethiopia is a major producer and exporter of khat in east Africa and the majority of the khat comes from the eastern part of the country, however, no studies have been conducted to investigate the habit in this area. This stu...

Khat (Catha edulis Forsk.) is a flowering perennial shrub cultivated for its neurostimulant properties resulting mainly from the occurrence of (S)-cathinone in young leaves. The biosynthesis of (S)-cathinone and the related phenylpropylamino alkaloids (1S,2S)-cathine and (1R,2S)-norephedrine is not well characterized in plants. We prepared a cDNA library from young khat leaves and sequenced 4,8...

A capillary electrophoretic method, which allowed the detection and separation of the active principles of Catha edulis, i.e. cathinone, cathine and phenylpropanolamine, was developed. A suitable internal standard (nicotinamide), which permitted the quantification of the analytes reducing the variability of the migration times due to EOF changes, was identified. The analytical method was valida...

The leaves of the plant khat (Catha edulis) are commonly chewed in Arabian Peninsula and certain countries of the East Africa. The leaves of which are chewed for largely cultural and stimulant reasons. In this paper, a review of the scientific literatures on the relationship between khat use and psychosis and potentiality of dependence. To understand khat use, it is needed to discuss khat pheno...

Severe rhabdomyolysis is a rare complication of exposure to the recreational drug khat. Adverse reactions to khat that have been reported in the literature include myocardial infarction and reversible vasoconstriction syndrome. The active ingredient, cathinone, is a naturally occurring beta-ketone amphetamine that may be responsible for this severe catecholaminergic response. Here we report a c...