‘The happiest plant on Earth’

This article first appeared in our Earth Day 2025 issue of My Green Pod Magazine, published 22 April. Click here to subscribe to our digital edition and get each issue delivered straight to your inbox

Stephanie Wang discovered kanna back in 2013, during her first shamanic plant medicine ceremony.

‘I felt my heart expand more than I ever imagined possible’, she remembers. ‘The feeling was accompanied by a deep sense of acceptance and belonging.’

Stephanie’s experience was so profound that she felt moved to share it; ‘I felt my mission emerge’, she tells us; ‘a mission to help make this plant medicine accessible to as many people as possible.’

Stephanie founded KA! Empathogenics as a way to fulfil this goal, and support her broader mission to usher in the next revolution in mental health – a revolution powered by plants.

‘Our mission is to restore full-spectrum aliveness for all beings’, Stephanie shares. ‘My goal in founding KA! Empathogenics has been to help people feel more alive, connected and capable as they navigate the challenges of their daily lives with more consciousness and love. I want to create a more heart-centred world and kanna is the perfect plant ally for that.’

What is kanna?

Kanna is a succulent plant with small flowers, typically white or yellow, that is native to the Karoo desert in South Africa and Namibia.

It is increasingly cultivated for commercial use due to its medicinal properties as a mood-enhancing plant.

The plant is an empathogen (increasing feelings of empathy and connection), a euphoriant (producing feelings of joy), an anxiolytic (releasing stress and tension), an adaptogen (regulating your nervous system) a nootropic (protecting brain health), an aphrodisiac (we know you know this one), a hypnotic (inducing healthy, natural sleep) and is ergogenic (enhancing physical performance and stamina).

It also has anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, antimicrobial and immunomodulatory properties.

A number of studies conducted over the last 30 years confirm kanna’s benefits for anxiety and stress reduction as well as cognitive support, but until relatively recently, kanna has received minimal scientific attention.

‘Kanna has been clinically proven to reduce stress, bring calm and improve focus and cognition, helping people feel more relaxed and open-hearted, with a sense of grounded energy, and better able to connect with themselves, others and nature’, Stephanie explains.

The plant has been dubbed ‘nature’s MDMA’, but while both are empathogens, meaning they increase feelings of empathy, acceptance and connection, the similarities end there.

While it affects mental processes, kanna is sober and won’t make you feel ‘high’. It is also non-addictive and its many alkaloids work to curb excessive cravings and behaviours.

It helps to take you out of an overactive fight-or-flight response, and build mental and emotional resilience.

Like coffee, kanna is psychoactive but not psychedelic; it affects the mind and mood but is not hallucinogenic, nor will it alter perception or sense of time.

Kanna is also adaptogenic, balancing your system over time without being toxic to your liver.

All of this makes kanna a very special plant; it will probably come as no surprise that it has a rich history of traditional use among Indigenous peoples in South Africa.

Plant-based healing

The bushmen and Khoi people have used kanna for at least 2,000 years, and maybe even for several thousand.

Archeological evidence has been found in cave sites from the Later Stone Age, some even connected to human settlements from about 1,000-2,000 BC.

‘The first written records we have about kanna come from Dutch colonists in the 17th century, who saw the Indigenous people chewing it and noticed the positive effects on their mood’, Stephanie says.

Just as R. Gordon Wasson’s experiences with Mazatec healer María Sabina in Mexico in 1955 introduced psilocybin mushrooms to western audiences, and Albert Hofmann’s discovery of LSD was based on work with sacred plants used by Indigenous peoples, kanna’s use among Indigenous peoples in South Africa has inspired interest among western practitioners who see ceremony and community integration as central to healing.

‘Indigenous healing practices take a holistic approach, recognising the interconnectedness of physical, mental, spiritual and social wellbeing’, Stephanie shares. ‘Traditional healers focus on treating the whole person rather than just isolated symptoms, as is common in western medicine.’

A core principle of Indigenous healing is the significance of connection to community, ancestors, nature and spiritual forces. Illness is often viewed as a result of spiritual imbalance, social disharmony or ancestral influence.

‘Plants are highly revered as medicine and are believed to possess their own spirit and agency’, Stephanie says. ‘Knowledge is typically held by community members and passed down orally through generations. The goal of treatment is to restore harmony, not simply eliminate symptoms.’

For Stephanie, connection is fundamental to healing and a core principle of KA!’s mission – yet it’s something we lack as a society.

‘Connection provides emotional resilience’, Stephanie explains. ‘When we feel connected to ourselves, others and nature, our bodies release oxytocin and reduce stress hormones, directly affecting our immune response and healing capacity. Social connection has been linked to faster recovery times and reduced inflammation, in addition to its emotional benefits.’

For Stephanie, this is where western medicine gets it wrong; it often emphasises isolated, standardised treatments and a more mechanistic view of the body. Even when western medicine adopts herbal remedies, it often strips away the cultural context and holistic framework for commercial purposes.

This approach clearly isn’t working – according to the mental health charity Mind, one in four people will experience a mental health problem of some kind each year in England.

Healthy connections

With the well-documented rise of physical and mental illnesses in the west, it’s no surprise that Stephanie has seen increased interest around kanna from both scientific and consumer perspectives.

‘In general, there’s a rise in consumer interest in plant-based alternatives to pharmaceutical medications’, she shares; ‘kanna is the only non-pharmaceutical, 100% natural supplement that treats anxiety by enhancing the effects of neurotransmitter GABA (like a benzodiazepine) and treats depression by increasing serotonin (like an SSRI) simultaneously. We are also seeing increased awareness of traditional medicines from around the world, and of course the psychedelic renaissance has created curiosity about ethnobotanicals.’

Kanna supports a sense of wellbeing and promotes empathy and connection – the lack of which is the root of many physical and mental ailments.

When taken as a natural remedy it can help you relax and become more in tune with yourself, others and the environment around you. It also helps to reduce stress and anxiety and lift mood, while supporting focus and productivity.