The pinwheel jasmine (Tabernaemontana divaricata) is native to India and Southeast Asia. There are about 140 species of Tabernaemontana scattered around the tropics. The pinwheel jasmine blooms heavily in spring and sporadically through the summer and fall. It is only fragrant at night and the flowers are highly visible in moonlight.

In Thai ethnomedicine, pinwheel jasmine is used as an analgesic and sedative; the plants are related to Rauvolfia used in Ayurvedic medicine. (See Plants that Changed History, March 26, 2002)

Tabernaemontana in South America and the closely related Tabernanthe iboga of central Africa have been used in religious rituals (inebriants) to bring on visions of ancestors, nature spirits, or distant places. In the Bwite religion of Gabon, it is believed that a massive dosage of the root causes the head to break open allowing the soul to leave the body. Unfortunately, not all of the inebriated survive the head-breaking hallucination.

Lewis and Elvin-Lewis (Medical Botany, 1977) report that iboga is used on young women and children to force them to reveal where they had hidden treasures (ogbanje) during their past lives. It is believed that failure to tell where the ogbanje lay buried will lead to mysterious deaths in the village.

In both South America and Africa, extracts of the plants are used as stimulants. Pharmacological research of the alkaloids in Tabernaemontana and Tabernanthe show promise in helping interrupt addiction to opiates, cocaine, nicotine, and alcohol. The chemical structure and physiological action of these alkaloids is not yet fully understood.