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Kratom is a tropical evergreen in the coffee family, native to Southeast Asia. This page covers what it is, where it grows, the alkaloids the leaf contains, how it is harvested and processed, and how to tell quality leaf from filler. Straight botany and sourcing, no marketing claims.
Long before kratom reached the Western market, the tree was a familiar part of the landscape and the rural economy across Indonesia, Thailand, and Malaysia.
The Indonesian archipelago, especially Borneo (Kalimantan) and Sumatra, is the beating heart of modern kratom cultivation. Family farms harvest wild and cultivated trees along rivers like the Kapuas, drying the leaf in covered sheds to protect it from direct sun.
Kratom is a Thai word, and southern Thailand is where the tree first entered the written legal record. The Kratom Act 1943 ordered existing trees cut down and pushed the export trade to Indonesia. Thailand removed kratom from its narcotics list in 2021 and is once again producing leaf legally.
Known locally as ketum or biak-biak, Malaysian kratom grows across Peninsular Malaysia, especially in Kedah and Perak. Regulation under the Poisons Act keeps commercial activity restricted, so Malaysian leaf rarely reaches international markets despite sitting inside the tree's natural range.
Kratom is the leaf of Mitragyna speciosa, a tropical tree in the coffee family that grows along rivers and freshwater swamps in Southeast Asia.
Select a label on the plate to explore each part.
Kratom leaves are broad and oval with a pointed tip, typically 6 to 8 inches long when fully grown. Edges are often smooth or wavy, and some varieties grow horn-like points, which is where names like Horned come from. The leaves hold the plant’s highest concentration of naturally occurring alkaloids, with mitragynine the most abundant.
The midrib runs from the stem to the tip, and its color gives kratom its trade names: red, green, and white. Vein color shifts as a leaf develops, and drying methods vary by grower, but every color comes from the same species.
Twelve to seventeen pairs of side veins branch off the midrib in a feather-like pattern and curve toward the leaf’s edge. Together with the opposite leaf arrangement and pointed tip, this pattern is part of how botanists describe the species.
Leaves grow in opposite pairs along the branch, each on a short stalk, with two small leaf-like stipules at the base. When dried leaves are processed, some producers remove the coarser stem and vein material before grinding.
Kratom flowers form round, spiky heads, often in clusters of three. Each head holds 80 to 100 tiny flowers that turn bright yellow as they mature and give off a sweet scent.
Botanical education only. There are no FDA-approved uses for kratom, and nothing here is intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.
Kratom leaves naturally contain more than 40 alkaloids, and mitragynine is the most abundant. How much a leaf holds shifts with the season, the leaf’s age, and how it’s handled after harvest.
Source: University of Florida research, 2023 to 2025
Highest and lowest mitragynine levels, by weight, in leaf samples from one subdistrict of Surat Thani, Thailand, collected in June 2019, October 2019, and January 2020.
Source: Thai field survey, 2023
The direction each alkaloid moves as a leaf develops. This shows direction of change, not amounts.
Source: University of Florida research, 2023 to 2025
How much letting freshly picked leaves wither before drying raised mitragynine in two cultivars. Cooler drying temperatures generally preserved mitragynine, speciogynine, and paynantheine.
Source: University of Florida postharvest study, 2025
Red-, green-, and white-vein leaves collected in Kalimantan showed broadly similar alkaloid fingerprints, with mitragynine the most abundant in all three. Mature leaves in the study reached up to 1.19% mitragynine by weight.
Source: Kalimantan vein-color comparison
7-hydroxymitragynine, or 7-OH, occurs naturally in kratom leaf, but only in trace amounts. Concentrated 7-OH products are a different kind of product from whole leaf. Garuda Kratom sells whole-leaf powder and capsules only.
Percent by weight of dried leaf
At this scale, 7-OH barely registers next to mitragynine.
Sources: Thai field survey, 2023; published leaf measurements summarized by University of Florida researchers, 2025
Figures are published measurements from kratom leaf and leaf extracts, drawn from a Thai field survey (2023), University of Florida research (2023 to 2025), and a Kalimantan vein-color comparison. Levels vary from batch to batch. Educational content only. There are no FDA-approved uses for kratom, and nothing here is intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.
Vein color describes the leaf's maturity and the drying method the farmer used. It is not a separate plant.
Harvested from young trees or early-growth leaves. Dried indoors with minimal light exposure, preserving the lighter alkaloid profile tied to immature leaf.
The middle point in the harvest cycle. Green vein leaf is dried part indoors and part outdoors, producing a balanced alkaloid ratio that sits between white and red.
Harvested at full maturity when the central vein turns deep red. Dried longer, often with a final sun-cure, which shifts the alkaloid balance compared to younger leaf.
Not a separate harvest. Yellow is produced by drying green or white leaf for a longer period, often with controlled sun exposure, until the powder takes on a yellow-gold hue.
A specialty process where red leaf is briefly fermented before drying. The result is a distinct alkaloid ratio and a visibly darker powder, often with a copper or gold tint.
Same tree, same species. What changes is when the leaf is picked and how the farmer chooses to dry it. For a deeper comparison, see our strain guide.
The plant arrives whole-leaf, then we decide how it gets milled, packed, and shipped.
Dried leaf, deveined and milled to a fine powder. The standard form across the industry because it preserves the whole-leaf alkaloid profile and stores well. Sold by weight, typically in 28 g, 125 g, 250 g, 500 g, and 1 kg pouches.
The same milled powder packed into standardized vegetable-cellulose capsules. Capsules are pre-measured by the gram and offer consistent portioning. The only difference from loose powder is the vegetable-cellulose shell.
A concentrated form produced by soaking leaf in food-grade solvent, filtering, and evaporating until only a thick resin or spray-dried powder remains. Extracts are measured in total-alkaloid percent and are much stronger per gram than leaf. Handled and labeled differently for that reason.
Compare powder and capsules spec by spec
Follow the whole process: how kratom powder is made, leaf to pouch
If a vendor can't answer these six questions, the pouch is a guess.
Every batch should be tested by an independent ISO 17025-accredited lab for alkaloid content, heavy metals (lead, cadmium, arsenic, mercury), microbials (Salmonella, E. coli, yeast, mold), and pesticides. Ask for the COA by batch number. If there isn't one, there wasn't a test.
Quality vendors know the region, the farm, and often the family. "Indonesian" is not sourcing transparency. "Harvested in the Kapuas Hulu regency of West Kalimantan by the family we've worked with since 2019" is.
Kratom is a dried botanical. Alkaloid content degrades gradually over time, especially with light and heat exposure. A fresh batch, stored sealed and cool, will outperform a year-old pouch every time. Look for vendors who date their batches.
Fine, uniform powder means the leaf was properly dried and milled. Stem and vein content should be minimal. Color should be consistent within the vein type. Clumping, gritty textures, or off smells are warning signs.
Quality leaf ships in sealed, opaque, moisture-barrier pouches with a clear batch number and a matching COA. Clear bags, missing labels, or unsealed packaging all shorten the product's useful life.
The American Kratom Association's Good Manufacturing Practices Standards Program audits vendors against some of the strictest manufacturing requirements in the industry. Participation is voluntary, and qualified vendors represent a small fraction of the market. It is one credential worth checking for, alongside independent ISO 17025 lab testing on every batch.
Use the full 10-point vendor checklist, graded against ourselves included
The terms you will see on COAs, strain pages, and third-party forums.
Browse the full kratom glossary: 40+ terms, each with its own anchor
For everything we deliberately kept off this page so it would stay an overview.
Single-origin strains, split-kilo pricing, and a public COA archive for every batch. Free shipping on orders over $75.
