Ibogaine

Total iboga alkaloid extract from the root bark of T. iboga was obtained from IbogaWorld and purified as follows. The material was suspended in aqueous 10% NaOH solution, which was extracted with ethyl acetate (4 × 200 ml). The combined organic layers were dried with Na₂SO₄ and evaporated in vacuo. The residue was purified by column chromatography (SiO₂, CH₂Cl₂:MeOH 9:1 + 0.1% NH₄OH). The obtained free base was further crystallized from ethanol. Ibogaine HCl was prepared dissolving the free base in dried acetone under Argon atmosphere and the equivalent amount of HCl (aq, 36%) was added. Ibogaine hydrochloride was filtered, washed with cold acetone, dried under vacuum, and characterized by ¹H- and ¹³C-NMR (see Supplementary Materials for details). Purity was determined as 96.4% by GC–MS (see Supplementary Materials for details). Dissolution of ibogaine-HCl to prepare the samples for i.p. injection was carried out using warm saline that was previously degassed by nitrogen bubbling.