Catha edulis

Catha edulis, qat or khat, of the Celastraceae family, also known as cat , jat, gat, qaad, tschat, mairungi, or miraa (among many other names), is a phanerogam, native to tropical areas of eastern Africa.

Description

It is a shrub or small tree, growing to 5-8 m tall, with evergreen leaves 5-10 cm × 1-4 cm. The flowers arise in short axillary clusters 4-8 cm long, small and with five white petals. The fruit is an oblong trivalvate capsule containing 1 to 3 seeds.

Active ingredients

Cathinone molecule.

A Somali man prepares qat in Mogadishu.

Qat is a chewed vegetable stimulant traditionally used in Yemen, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Somalia, Kenya, Tanzania and other neighboring Arab countries in the Horn of Africa. It is the plant with the most powerful psychostimulant properties known to date. Its active principles are the psychotropic alkaloids catine and cathinone. Both are psychostimulant molecules, derived from phenethylamine, and chemically and functionally related to amphetamines. In particular, cathinone is the more active of the two, and it is also known because it serves as a substrate for obtaining a powerful drug, methcathinone. This chemical synthesis is carried out relatively easily and at low cost, in clandestine laboratories throughout the US, and its market is growing due to methcathinone's similarity to methamphetamine. However, the source and precursors to produce this synthetic derivative do not come from the plant, but from the same compounds that are used to produce methamphetamine, such as ephedrine and other similar derivatives.

The effects of this drug are similar to those of other sympathomimetic amines, producing stimulation of the Central Nervous System and a feeling of stimulation and euphoria at a psychic level.

Its price is low in countries like the UK, where it is currently legal. A bunch of it, which is used in a similar way to the coca plant, by chewing, currently costs £3 there. In other places it can reach a price of about 300 euros per kilogram, such as in Western countries, and up to 600 dollars/kg in the United States.

Cognitive damage

A kjat male in Yemen.

The use of qat has recently been investigated on brain cognitive functions, to find out if regular consumption of this plant affects the ability to inhibit behavioral responses, through the stop-signal task. This task requires subjects to react quickly and accurately by pressing a key in response to the direction of a green arrow pointing left or right. However, if the arrow changes to red, the response must be inhibited and the key not pressed. Compared to qat-free controls, qat users perform the inhibition response similarly, although they require more time to inhibit these responses to cue.

Legal status

Comparison of the negative effects of khat with the other 20 most common drugs. However, it must be very careful to rely on these scientific experiments that may be greatly influenced by personal interests. The graph also does not indicate the administered dose of each substance. Charts like this show a minority opinion in the scientific community, and they must be contrasted by responsible doctors before any individual experiences with these substances.

In Spain the plant is restricted to sale only through pharmacists (without such a presentation) by the law that in 2006 restricted the sale of about 200 plants due to their alleged toxicity.

However, its possession for ornamental use is permitted. Of its active ingredients, cathine, the least active, is controlled as a possible precursor to other prohibited substances. The other, cathinone, which is more potent for its weight, has been banned since 1986.

Its legal status as a plant differs from country to country. In the United Kingdom in 2006 an attempt was made to ban it, at the request of a Conservative parliamentarian. Studies were carried out on the advisability of taking this measure, and it was decided, with the advice of the police, that the prohibition should be avoided since its consumption did not pose any health or public order problem. Thus, large quantities of this plant were shipped from its two major producers, Ethiopia and Kenya, several times a week, and it was sold freely in the markets of the African environment. However, on June 24, 2014, its prohibition was carried out and it became an illegal class C drug.

In the study carried out on dangerousness and drugs, in which the 20 most used drugs in the United Kingdom were evaluated, including all legal ones such as barbiturates, alcohol and tobacco, and illegal ones such as cannabis, LSD or MDMA, qat it turned out to be the least dangerous substance of all those studied, occupying the last place in the study.

Taxonomy

Catha edulis was described by (Vahl) Forssk. ex Endl. and published in Flora Aegyptiaco-Arabica 67: 63. 1775.

Sinonimia

• Catha forsskalii A.Rich.
• Catha inermis J.F.Gmel.
• Celastrus edulis Vahl.
• Celastrus tsaad Ferreira & Galeotti ex Walp.
• Dillonia abyssinica Sacleux.
• Methyscophyllum glaucum Eckl.
• Trigonotheca serrata Hochst.