New information about Tay Keith’s death is drawing attention to a substance that may be unfamiliar to many people: mitragynine.
According to TMZ, citing the Nashville Medical Examiner’s Office, Keith died from the toxic effects of drugs, with ketamine and mitragynine detected in his system. The publicly reported findings do not explain how Keith consumed either substance, how much was present, or what product may have been the source of the mitragynine.
Keith, whose real name was Brytavious Chambers, was 29 when he was found dead inside his Nashville apartment in June. According to CBS News, Metro Nashville Police found the Grammy-nominated producer while conducting a welfare check and said at the time that foul play was not suspected.
While ketamine is a name many people have heard before, mitragynine is considerably less familiar.
Mitragynine is the primary psychoactive alkaloid found in kratom, a tropical tree called Mitragyna speciosa that is native to Southeast Asia. According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, mitragynine interacts with mu opioid receptors in the brain, the same type of receptors affected by opioid drugs such as codeine. It also interacts with other chemical systems in the brain.
That does not mean mitragynine is identical to traditional opioids. Kratom contains dozens of alkaloids, and researchers are still studying how they work. The FDA says much remains scientifically unknown about kratom, including questions surrounding its potential therapeutic uses and full safety profile.
Kratom can also produce different effects depending on how much is consumed. According to the Drug Enforcement Administration, lower amounts have been associated with stimulant effects such as increased alertness and energy, while higher amounts can produce sedative effects. The agency says kratom use can also lead to psychological and physical dependence.
Kratom products are most commonly consumed orally. The DEA says they may be sold as tablets, capsules, or extracts. Kratom leaves can also be dried or powdered and prepared as tea, while the leaves themselves have traditionally been chewed. The presence of mitragynine in a toxicology report, however, does not reveal which type of product a person consumed or how that exposure occurred.
There is also an important distinction between mitragynine and another kratom-related compound called 7 OH, or 7 hydroxymitragynine.
According to the FDA, 7 OH occurs naturally in kratom in relatively small amounts but has substantially greater activity at mu opioid receptors than mitragynine. The agency has separately raised concerns about products containing concentrated or enhanced amounts of 7 OH. Mitragynine can also be converted into 7 OH in the body. The publicly reported Tay Keith toxicology findings specifically identify mitragynine and should not be interpreted as confirmation that a concentrated 7 OH product was involved.
The potential health risks connected to kratom are another reason mitragynine deserves attention. The FDA warns against kratom use because of reports of serious adverse events, including seizures, liver toxicity, and substance use disorder. The agency says compounds in kratom may produce opioid related effects including sedation, nausea, vomiting, constipation, physical dependence, withdrawal, and respiratory depression.
Deaths have also been associated with kratom use, although the circumstances can be complicated. The FDA notes that in reported deaths involving kratom, other substances were usually present and kratom’s exact contribution was not always clear. That distinction is important because toxicology results can identify what was present in someone’s body without necessarily explaining the precise biological role each substance played.
The FDA has not approved kratom for any medical use, despite kratom products being available through some online sellers and physical retailers. The agency also says no FDA-approved prescription or over-the-counter drug containing kratom is legally marketed in the United States.
Ketamine, the other substance reportedly identified in Keith’s system, has a different history and pharmacological profile.
According to the DEA’s ketamine fact sheet, ketamine is a dissociative anesthetic that can alter perception and create feelings of detachment from a person’s body, pain, or surroundings. It can cause sedation, immobility, and memory loss, and has legitimate uses in medicine as an anesthetic.
FDA approved ketamine is available as an injectable anesthetic, and ketamine is classified as a Schedule III controlled substance. A related drug called esketamine is also FDA-approved as a medically supervised nasal spray for certain patients with depression. The FDA has emphasized that ketamine itself is not approved to treat psychiatric disorders.
Outside medical settings, ketamine can appear in liquid or powder form. The DEA reports that it may be injected, snorted, smoked, or mixed into beverages. Those are documented general routes of exposure and do not establish how ketamine entered Keith’s system.
Ketamine can become especially dangerous at toxic levels. According to the DEA, an overdose can cause unconsciousness and dangerously slowed breathing. Severe ketamine overdose can also result in respiratory depression, seizures, coma, and death from respiratory arrest.
Federal data also show that ketamine frequently appears alongside other substances in fatal overdoses. According to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention analysis covering July 2019 through June 2023, ketamine was detected in 912 overdose deaths across 45 participating jurisdictions. About 82 percent of those deaths involved certain other substances, including illegally manufactured fentanyl, methamphetamine, or cocaine. The CDC cautioned that more research is needed to understand ketamine’s role when multiple drugs are involved.
Mitragynine and ketamine can both affect the central nervous system, and both have been associated with sedation and potentially serious health effects. Still, the publicly reported medical examiner findings do not explain the exact interaction between the two substances in Keith’s death or establish how either one was obtained or consumed. What the findings have done is put a lesser-known kratom compound into the spotlight and raise new questions about a substance that can be readily encountered despite significant gaps in public understanding of its risks.
