How Kanna Went From Traditional Medicine to Modern Supplement

A Case Study in Market Language

Kanna (Sceletium tortuosum) has been used for centuries in South Africa.

But it didn’t have a market until recently.

Why?

Because markets don’t move in cycles.
They move in languages.

Long before Kanna appeared on supplement shelves — before ingredient panels, product listings, wellness blogs, or dosing guides — it already existed as an experience. People felt its effects. They understood its role. They knew when to use it.

What didn’t exist was the modern language to describe it.

And without language, there is no market — only practice.

The story of Kanna’s rise mirrors something we’ve seen before. Very clearly. Very recently.

If you lived through the early days of the CBD market, you’ve already watched this film.

Phase One: Before the Words Exist

For hundreds of years, Kanna was used by indigenous communities in Southern Africa, particularly among the San and Khoikhoi peoples.

It wasn’t marketed.
It wasn’t branded.
It wasn’t isolated into single compounds.

It was chewed, fermented, brewed — used situationally, socially, intentionally.

The experience existed.
The category did not.

From a modern Western lens, this is uncomfortable. We want labels. We want mechanisms. We want tidy explanations.

But Kanna didn’t fit neatly into any of them.

“Mood enhancement” felt vague.
“Stress relief” was too generic.
“Relaxation” missed the clarity.
“Stimulation” was inaccurate.

The effect was contextual, not linear.

This is the first problem with substances that predate modern wellness language:
the experience arrives before the taxonomy.

CBD faced the same issue decades later. People felt calmer, more regulated, less reactive — but no one could quite agree on what that meant.

So Phase One persists quietly, outside the market.

Phase Two: Early Adopters Without a Shared Map

Eventually, something shifts.

Not mainstream adoption — just the first ripple of recognition.

Researchers begin studying alkaloids. Wellness enthusiasts rediscover traditional use. Early supplement companies experiment with extraction.

And suddenly, Kanna needs to be explained.

This is where borrowed language enters.

Some people called Kanna a supplement.
Others framed it as medicine.
Some positioned it as a nootropic.
Others compared it to adaptogens or herbal antidepressants.

None of these were fully accurate.
All of them shaped expectations.

Just like early CBD, it was framed as:

A cure-all
Medicine-lite
Non-intoxicating cannabis
A pharmaceutical alternative

Borrowed language always brings borrowed assumptions.

And assumptions are dangerous when a substance works subtly, cumulatively, and contextually.

Phase Three: The Hype Gap

This is the phase most people remember — and regret.

As interest grows, nuance collapses.

Headlines appear:

“Natural MDMA”
“Legal high”
“Mood-altering herb”

These weren’t just wrong — they misrepresented the actual experience.

Just as CBD was once marketed as a painkiller, a sleep drug, an anxiety cure, an anti-everything solution.

Hype compresses complexity.

Kanna doesn’t overwhelm the nervous system.
It doesn’t intoxicate.
It doesn’t force outcomes.

But hype needs immediacy. It needs drama.

The people who were there early begin to feel uneasy — not because the substance doesn’t work, but because the language stopped fitting the reality.

This is where backlash begins.

Phase Four: Regulation and Compression

Eventually, reality intervenes.

Sometimes through regulators.
Sometimes through consumer fatigue.
Sometimes through quiet correction.

Claims are stripped back.
Language tightens.
Categories formalise.

CBD went through this aggressively.

Kanna followed the same path — just more quietly.

What survived wasn’t the hype.

What survived was the truth:
Kanna as a dietary supplement traditionally used to support mood and stress response — not a drug, not a shortcut, not a replacement for clinical treatment.

This phase always feels like contraction.
But it’s actually clarification.

Phase Five: Normalisation

This is where things stabilise.

Kanna finds shelf space.
Use cases become clearer.
Dosing becomes predictable.
Expectations align with reality.

It stops being exotic.
It stops being controversial.
It becomes useful.

This is the phase CBD occupies today — and it’s precisely where Sembra enters the story.

Why Sembra Took a Different Path

Having lived through the full arc of CBD — from pre-language chaos to overhyped explosion to regulatory compression — Sembra didn’t approach Kanna as a trend.

It approached it as a language problem.

Instead of asking, “How do we make this sound exciting?”
The question was, “How do we describe this accurately?”

That meant:

No exaggerated claims
No stimulant comparisons
No borrowed pharmaceutical language
No promises the body can’t keep

Sembra focused on:

Traditionally fermented Kanna (EPIFERM® Extract)
Bioavailability over dosage theatrics
Clear, conservative benefit framing
Transparency over hype

This isn’t caution.
It’s pattern recognition.

Kanna Is Not a Shortcut — And That’s the Point

Like cannabinoids, Kanna works with the nervous system, not against it.

Its effects are often:

Subtle at first
Cumulative with consistent use
Dependent on individual baseline and context

This makes it unsuitable for hype-driven marketing — and ideal for people who value regulation, balance, and long-term support.

CBD taught the wellness world a hard lesson:
mislabel the experience, and you lose trust.

Sembra chose not to repeat that mistake.

Precision Beats Noise

The most valuable position in any emerging category isn’t being first or loudest.

It’s being coherent.

Kanna didn’t suddenly become useful.
It became explainable.

And the brands that last aren’t the ones who shout during the chaos —
they’re the ones who arrive when the language finally fits the experience.

Sembra wasn’t late.
It was precise.