Background · 9 min read · May 9, 2026

A Brief History of Kratom: From Southeast Asian Traditions to Western Markets

Kratom (Mitragyna speciosa) has been used by farmers and laborers across Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia for centuries. Here's the story of how it traveled from rural Southeast Asia to American shelves — and why the regulatory turmoil along the way still shapes the industry today.

Kratom (Mitragyna speciosa) has been used by Southeast Asian farmers and laborers for generations — chewed fresh in the field for energy, brewed as evening tea for relaxation. Its commercial journey to the West is much shorter, dating mainly to the early 2000s, and has been shaped almost entirely by regulatory turbulence: Thailand's 1943 prohibition, the rise of Indonesian commercial cultivation, the 2016 DEA scheduling attempt and its withdrawal, the 2018 Salmonella outbreak, and the state-level KCPA legislation movement that began in 2019. Understanding this history is the fastest way to understand why the current US kratom market looks the way it does.

The traditional context

Mitragyna speciosa is a tree in the Rubiaceae family — the same plant family as coffee. It grows naturally across Southeast Asia, with native range spanning Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Myanmar, Vietnam, and parts of Papua New Guinea. The trees are large (up to 25+ meters in mature growth), and the leaves are the part used. They contain a complex mix of alkaloids, dominated by mitragynine — see our alkaloid guide for the chemistry.

Documented traditional use goes back at least to the 19th century, but oral accounts suggest the practice is much older. The basic patterns:

Field laborers chewed fresh leaves during long workdays in tropical heat — for energy, focus, and reduced fatigue. The pattern overlapped with how coca leaves are traditionally used in the Andes.
Older or red-vein leaves were brewed as tea in the evening for relaxation, sleep support, and pain relief.
Cultural and ceremonial uses appeared in rural communities, often integrated with other botanical traditions of the region.

This was a quiet, regional practice — well-known in the producing countries, essentially unknown to the West.

Thailand's 1943 prohibition

The first major regulatory event in kratom's history was Thailand's 1943 Kratom Act, which criminalized possession, sale, and cultivation. The motivation was reportedly economic: Thai government revenue at the time depended substantially on the opium tax, and kratom was being used as an opium substitute by laborers. Removing kratom from the legal market protected the opium revenue stream — at significant cost to the rural communities that had used kratom for generations.

The Thai prohibition lasted nearly 80 years, until 2021, when the Thai parliament fully legalized kratom under a regulated framework. Today Thailand is again a commercial producer, alongside Indonesia.

The 1943 ban had two lasting effects on the global market. First, it pushed commercial kratom production into neighboring countries — primarily Indonesia, which had no comparable restriction. Second, it established kratom as a "regulatory question mark" in international policy circles, framing that has shaped how Western countries have approached the plant ever since.

Indonesia becomes the global supply hub

After Thailand's prohibition, commercial kratom cultivation shifted to Indonesia — primarily on the islands of Borneo (Kalimantan), Sulawesi, and Sumatra. The climate and soil produce alkaloid-dense leaves, and the rural infrastructure adapted to support harvest, drying, and export operations.

Today, well over 90% of kratom consumed in the United States is sourced from Indonesia. Major Indonesian export hubs include Pontianak (West Kalimantan) and other coastal cities. The kratom supply chain in Indonesia is meaningful enough economically that periodic regulatory threats from the Indonesian government — to ban exports or restrict cultivation — produce significant price and availability volatility in the US market.

Arrival in the West, early 2000s

Kratom appeared in Western specialty botanical and ethnobotanical shops in the late 1990s and early 2000s, initially as a niche import alongside other traditional plants like kava, betel, and various Amazonian botanicals. By the mid-2000s it was available through online retailers; by 2010 it had crossed into broader awareness; by the mid-2010s estimates put US users in the millions.

Western use patterns largely tracked the traditional Southeast Asian split: white and green vein for energy and focus (often as a coffee alternative — see kratom vs coffee), red vein for relaxation and sleep support. Veterans, chronic-pain patients, and people seeking alternatives to prescription opioids became some of the most vocal Western user constituencies — see our kratom for veterans guide.

The FDA's posture (2010s)

Beginning in the early 2010s, the FDA started issuing consumer advisories and import alerts. The agency's position was that kratom did not meet the dietary supplement framework and posed risks of dependence and adverse events. Import alerts authorized seizure of imported kratom shipments, and substantial volumes were seized at US ports of entry.

Notable FDA actions in this period:

2014 import alert authorizing detention without examination
Multiple consumer advisories, citing reports of dependence and withdrawal
Coordination with state agencies on individual enforcement actions

None of these constituted a federal ban — they were regulatory pressure within the limits of the FDA's authority. See our FDA regulatory guide for the full picture.

2016 — the DEA scheduling attempt

On August 30, 2016, the DEA published a notice of intent to place mitragynine and 7-hydroxymitragynine into Schedule I — the most restrictive category. The scheduling would have made kratom federally illegal, effectively ending the US market within weeks.

The public response was unlike anything the kratom community had organized before, and unlike anything the DEA had seen on a scheduling proposal:

Over 130,000 public comments to the DEA — a record at the time
A 142,000-signature White House petition
Congressional letters signed by 50+ lawmakers across both parties
Sustained national media coverage of veterans, chronic-pain patients, and former opioid users describing kratom's role in their lives

On October 12, 2016, the DEA formally withdrew the scheduling notice and deferred to the FDA for further review. That deferral has held for nearly a decade now. The 2016 episode is the central event in modern US kratom history — it permanently shifted the political math on federal kratom prohibition and gave the industry the breathing room to organize itself.

2018 — the Salmonella outbreak

In 2018, a multi-state Salmonella outbreak tied to kratom sickened over 200 people across 41 states. Genomic analysis traced the contamination to imported kratom batches that had not been adequately tested at the supplier or distributor level.

This was the worst public-health incident in US kratom history, and it forced a reckoning. Reputable vendors invested heavily in third-party batch testing. The FDA used the outbreak as evidence in its ongoing kratom warnings. And the American Kratom Association used it as the impetus to formalize and accelerate the GMP Standards Program — which became the basis of vendor self-regulation in the years following. See our GMP standards explainer.

2019 — the KCPA framework

With federal regulation absent, the AKA pivoted to state-level legislation, producing model legislation called the Kratom Consumer Protection Act. Utah passed the first KCPA in 2019, establishing a 21+ age limit, mandatory labeling, contamination caps, and a synthetic-alkaloid ban.

The KCPA proved popular with state legislators across the political spectrum — consumer safety is bipartisan — and adoption spread. By 2026 more than a dozen states have passed KCPA-style legislation, with active bills in many more. See our KCPA explainer for what these laws actually do.

2023–2025 — the synthetic 7-OH crisis

The most recent major chapter in kratom's regulatory history is the emergence of concentrated synthetic 7-hydroxymitragynine products beginning around 2023. These products — small high-potency tablets and shots marketed as "kratom" but chemically distinct from natural-leaf material — produced a rash of dependence and adverse-event reports.

Because the products were sold under the kratom label, the incidents were attributed to "kratom" in news coverage and clinical reports, threatening the regulatory standing of the entire natural-leaf category. The FDA issued a targeted consumer alert in 2025; KCPA-style state laws now explicitly cap 7-OH content; and the AKA has made distinguishing natural kratom from synthetic 7-OH a top advocacy priority. See our synthetic 7-OH explainer.

Where the history leaves us in 2026

A trajectory worth noticing: every major regulatory threat to kratom has been defused by either consumer advocacy (2016 DEA), industry self-regulation (post- 2018 GMP), or state-level legislation (KCPA from 2019). The pattern suggests a category that has matured into a recognizable shape:

Federally legal but federally unblessed
State-regulated under the KCPA framework where adopted
Industry self-regulated through the AKA GMP program
Consumer-driven (the 2016 victory was won by consumers, not vendors)
With a clear bright line emerging between natural-leaf kratom and synthetic 7-OH products

The next regulatory chapters will most likely be: continued KCPA adoption, ongoing FDA action against synthetic 7-OH, possibly an Indonesian export regulation cycle, and — if the political environment shifts — eventual federal clarification one way or the other. The botanical itself, though, continues to be used by the same kinds of people for the same kinds of reasons it has been used in Southeast Asia for generations.

Frequently Asked Questions

How long have people been using kratom?

Documented use of kratom in Southeast Asia dates back at least to the 19th century, with traditional accounts suggesting much older use. Farmers and laborers in Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, and surrounding regions chewed fresh kratom leaves or brewed them as tea for energy during long workdays in tropical heat, and used red-vein leaves in the evening for relaxation and pain relief. The plant grows wild and was integrated into rural daily life for generations before any Western awareness.

When was kratom first banned?

Thailand was the first country to criminalize kratom, with the 1943 Kratom Act. The motivation was reportedly economic: Thailand had a tax revenue dependency on opium, and kratom was being used as a substitute by laborers, undercutting that revenue. The ban remained in place until 2021, when Thailand fully legalized kratom — making the country one of the world's primary commercial growers today, alongside Indonesia.

When did kratom arrive in the United States?

Kratom began appearing in US specialty botanical shops and online retailers in the early 2000s, with significant market growth from roughly 2010 onward. By 2016 it was estimated that several million Americans were using it. The US market has historically been supplied almost entirely by Indonesian growers — Thailand's prohibition forced commercial kratom production to shift to Indonesia, where it remains concentrated today even after Thai legalization.

What was the 2016 DEA scheduling attempt?

On August 30, 2016, the DEA published a notice of intent to place mitragynine and 7-hydroxymitragynine into Schedule I — which would have made kratom federally illegal. The public response was unprecedented for any DEA scheduling proposal: over 130,000 public comments, a 142,000-signature White House petition, congressional letters from 50+ lawmakers asking the agency to reconsider. On October 12, 2016, the DEA formally withdrew the notice and deferred to the FDA. That deferral has held since. See our 'Kratom and the FDA' article for the full federal regulatory picture.

When did the Kratom Consumer Protection Act movement start?

The first KCPA-style legislation passed in Utah in 2019, championed by the American Kratom Association as a state-level response to the absence of federal regulation. The KCPA framework establishes minimum consumer-safety standards: 21+ age limits, mandatory labeling of mitragynine content, prohibition of synthetic alkaloids, contamination thresholds for heavy metals and microbials, and state enforcement authority. Since 2019, more than a dozen US states have passed similar laws, and many more have active KCPA bills.

Why is kratom so concentrated in Indonesia today?

Two reasons. First, Indonesia's tropical climate and soil conditions on Borneo, Sulawesi, and Sumatra produce alkaloid-dense kratom — which is why most of the world's commercial kratom comes from these regions. Second, Thailand's 1943 prohibition forced commercial cultivation out of its traditional homeland and into neighboring countries that didn't have the same restrictions. Indonesia became the dominant supply node, and even after Thailand re-legalized kratom in 2021, the supply chain infrastructure had already settled in Indonesia.

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How 4 Leaf Herbals Describes Its Kratom Supply Chain — Industry
Kratom Dosage Guide — Dosing uncertainty, product differences, and safety considerations
Lab Results Library — Available product and batch laboratory reports