[5] The earliest reliable account of the use of the plant as both poison and entheogen is to be found in a short paper by Aubry-Lecomte of 1864, predating the publication of its scientific name by 15 years.

The relevant passage runs as follows: Monsieur Duchaillu has already spoken ( in a work well-received by those who have travelled in the interior of Gabon - despite its measure of exaggeration) of the effects of the poison M'boundou; the notes and specimens lately brought back from that country by Monsieur Griffon du Bellay, naval surgeon first class, confirm, on the whole, the description given by this traveller [Duchaillu].

The plant M'boundou belongs to the genus Strychnos of the family Loganiaceae, and the infusion of the reddish bark of its root is held by the natives of Cape Lopez to confer (upon him who does not die after having drunk it) the power of divination.

However, the Ogangas (native healers) are considered to be immune to its effects; although they take care, it is true, to gulp down palm oil before drinking M'boundou , which attenuates the violence of the poison and facilitates its excretion via the urinary ducts; it is doubtless from accounts of this precaution that there derives the assertion of Monsieur Duchaillu that the surest sign that one undergoing the ordeal will survive it, is a frequent and involuntary passing of urine.

The M'boundou of Cape Lopez is known in Gabon under the name of casa or icaja; but since the French occupation, it [the poison] is no longer administered to natives suspected of a crime, save in the most remote settlements and in the depths of the forests, where our authority can have no influence.

[6][Translated from the original French]Chevalier's 1951 account of the use of S. icaja in the forests of the Ubangi River (Oubangui River) region provides additional information concerning the harvesting of the plant and an antidote employed in cases of poisoning by it: The most famous ordeal poison of the dense forest is the Loganiaceous liana known to science as Strychnos icaja Baillon.

In Côte d'Ivoire, Nigeria, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, whole plants, root bark, and fruits are used as a fish poison.

[5] Roman Catholic missionary Alexandre Le Roy, mentions briefly (as one of a series of examples of the initiation of youths into Gabonese secret societies of a religious nature) what appears to be entheogenic use of S. icaja: Bwiti, which is the great fetish [see page Fetish priest] of the land, has its initiates in the area of Setté Cama [central Africa] and in other places.

To be accepted into the secret society, the aspirant must first chew certain roots and drink a decoction of the bark of a tree which is known to botanists as Strychnos icaja.

[7]The passage above is of sufficient ethnobotanical interest to have been included both in an anthology by Hedwig Schleiffer[8] and a more recent encyclopedia by Christian Rätsch.

In the Democratic Republic of Congo, a preparation of the ground root bark mixed with palm oil is applied for skin diseases and itch.

The root, stem and leaves contain a mixture of tertiary indole alkaloids of which strychnine and pseudostrychnine (12-hydroxystrychnine) are the main active principles.