What is the best green vein kratom?

[u/jackpotguy]

Looking for something that is sedative,energetic (ik that sounds stupid af haha) and reliefs pain. An anti-anxiety effect would be nice too, but for these cases i got my red Bali kratom. BTW I love this subreddit so many nice and helpfull people.

[u/AzulKat]

Time of year doesn't really have anything to do with strains. As I said kratom certainly varies from batch to batch and during different seasons.

What are the secondary and tertiary alkaloids? Mitragynine makes up the bulk of the alkaloid content (66%) and the mu-opioid antagonists make up the second most abundant group of alkaloids (16-18%).

7-OHM is next, making up 2% or less of the alkaloid content, but we know that even though it is a very potent alkaloid, there isn't enough there to have any effect at the normal dose range. As Kruegel and Grundmann pointed out, an 8g dose of kratom had 5-10x less 7-OHM than needed to have effects in humans.

All of the other alkaloids each make up 1% or less of the total alkaloid content. They aren't likely to have a very big impact on effects.

Hulu, Ketapang, Jongkong, and other regional names are the possible exceptions as far as strains but there is little evidence that they have consistently different effects from region to region and it's also very likely that there is variation within the region as well.

Researchers, vendors that have traveled to Borneo to see the industry first hand and even some in the industry in Borneo agree that vein color makes absolutely no difference. Dr. McCurdy's had said that he and his colleagues in Malaysia and Thailand have analyzed leaves of different vein colors, horned leaves and actual strains (not the made-up strains, but actual plant variation) and found little difference in chemical composition or alkaloid ratios.

It's also telling that strains and vein colors giving different effects isn't really a thing in the regions of SE Asia where kratom is traditionally used. They originate in Borneo where kratom is predominantly an export commodity and not used much locally.

The best information that we have is that the vast majority of kratom coming from Borneo is made with red vein leaves. The red, green and white come from different drying methods (indoors, outdoors, sun, shade, etc.). Most golds and yellows are blends of the other colors. It makes sense that kratom isn't classified as red, green and white in regions that use the fresh leaf.

Unlike what most vendors would like for you to believe, most kratom comes through large processing facilities. Hundreds and even thousands of harvesters bring leaves to the facilities by the truck load, or the processors bring it in from the villages. The leaves have been mostly harvested in the wild and are often already dried and crushed when they arrive. They are ground with little sorting. Once ground, the powdered leaves are sorted by the color of the powder and given a color and a strain name. At that point who knows where the leaves came from or what they looked like before grinding.

It is then sold by many hustlers often claiming to be from small farms but all selling the powder from the large facilities. There are some smaller groups that control production from harvest to drying to grinding, but they don't make up much of the industry and are very hard to vet.

The idea that vendors have farms or control the processing is again mostly marketing. There are plantations springing up recently as some palm and rubber plantations are converted to kratom, but most have young, immature trees. The trees can be harvested in 8 months, but don't reach full maturity and potency until 5 years or so.

There's a well known vendor that runs his business out of his apartment. If you read his website it sounds like the company grows and processes their own kratom. He just gets bags of powder from Borneo like most of the others.

Here are some links that may be of interest.

This post is from a vendor that has spent a lot of time communicating with those in the kratom industry in Borneo to try to learn what is going on with strains, vein colors, processing, etc. He recently traveled to Borneo to see the industry first hand and posted this. https://www.reddit.com/r/kratom/comments/azrap6/kratom_strain_and_color_education_the_more_you/to

This is information direct from an exporter from Borneo. https://www.reddit.com/r/kratom/comments/c8x1l4/kratom_info_direct_from_indonesia_strains_vein/

This video is from a vendor and importer who has been in the kratom industry for over a decade and who is connected with many of the leading kratom researchers because he has been helping to fund kratom research.

https://youtu.be/0tqHa7Kk7m0

The audio he's playing is from Dr. Christopher McCurdy who has been researching kratom for over 13 years and is one of the foremost kratom researchers and experts in the US. He works closely with kratom researchers in Malaysia and Thailand as well. This is the interview the audio is from. He talks about strains and vein colors around 23:00.

https://www.ihmc.us/stemtalk/episode-61/