Cat's Claw vs Kratom vs 7-OH: What's Actually Different

If you shop at smoke shops, wellness retailers, or online botanical stores, you have probably seen Cat's Claw, kratom, and 7-OH products sitting near each other. Retail adjacency is not botany, though, and the fact that three products share a shelf tells you nothing about whether they share anything else. They do not come from the same plant, they do not contain the same compounds, and they are not treated the same way under U.S. law.

This article lays out the differences factually: what plant each comes from, what each naturally contains, what formats each is sold in, and what the regulatory picture looks like as of July 2026. It is a comparison of facts, not a ranking. Nothing here should be read as saying any of these produces effects like any other, and nothing here says one is better or safer than another.

Cat's Claw: Uncaria tomentosa

Cat's Claw is the common name for Uncaria tomentosa, a woody climbing vine native to the Amazon rainforest of South and Central America. It is named for the curved, hooked thorns at its leaf nodes, which the vine uses to grip host trees as it climbs toward the canopy. The Spanish name, uña de gato, means the same thing.

The commercially used parts are the inner bark and, less often, the root. The species has been chemically characterized and is known to naturally contain indole and oxindole alkaloids and polyphenols, among other ordinary plant constituents. It has a long documented history of use among Indigenous peoples of the Amazon — historical and cultural context that is worth knowing but that does not establish any physiological effect.

Modern Cat's Claw products are typically extracts of the bark, sold as powders, sachets, tablets, chewables, or liquid concentrates, often flavored because raw botanical extract is bitter. The products we sell are made in the USA, third-party lab tested, contain no kratom, no mitragynine, and no 7-OH, and are intended for adults 21 and over. A longer treatment of the plant is on our Cat's Claw reference page, and the current lineup is in the Cat's Claw collection.

Kratom: Mitragyna speciosa

Kratom is the common name for Mitragyna speciosa, an evergreen tree native to Southeast Asia — Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Myanmar, and Papua New Guinea. It is a tree, not a vine, and the part used is the leaf, not the bark.

Kratom leaf naturally contains a set of alkaloids of which mitragynine is the most abundant, along with numerous minor alkaloids. It is sold as dried leaf powder, capsules, extracts, and concentrated liquid shots.

Here is a botanical detail that surprises people and is worth stating accurately: Uncaria and Mitragyna both belong to the plant family Rubiaceae. That is a real taxonomic relationship, but it is a distant one — Rubiaceae is a very large family that also contains coffee and gardenia — and sharing a family says nothing about sharing chemistry. Almonds and roses are in the same family too. The genera are different, the species are different, the plant parts used are different, and the characteristic alkaloids are different. Uncaria tomentosa does not contain mitragynine.

7-OH: a single compound, not a plant

This is the one that gets miscategorized most often. 7-OH is shorthand for 7-hydroxymitragynine, and it is not a plant at all. It is a single chemical compound — a minor alkaloid that occurs naturally in kratom leaf in trace quantities, and that is present in far higher concentrations in some concentrated or chemically modified products sold under the "7-OH" name.

That distinction matters for the comparison. Cat's Claw and kratom are botanical materials, each a mixture of many naturally occurring constituents. 7-OH is an isolated or concentrated compound. Comparing them is a bit like comparing coffee beans, tea leaves, and purified caffeine: three different categories of thing, described in three different ways, and regulated differently as a result.

Side-by-side comparison

The regulatory picture as of July 2026

Regulatory status is the area where these three genuinely diverge, and it is also the area that changes fastest. What follows describes the situation as of July 25, 2026. Verify current status before relying on any of it.

7-OH

On July 1, 2026, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration filed Notices of Intent to temporarily place 7-hydroxymitragynine into Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act. The action applies to material above a stated threshold: 0.05%, or 1 milligram per article in the case of extracts, concentrates, and pressed pills. Under the announced timeline, the order publishes on or after August 5, 2026 and, as a temporary scheduling action, runs for two years.

Two features of that are worth understanding. First, it is a threshold-based action rather than a blanket one, which means the concentration in a given article is what determines whether it falls within scope. Second, temporary scheduling is a defined mechanism with a defined duration, and it can be followed by further proceedings. We track the details, including what "temporary" means in practice, in our dedicated article on the 7-OH scheduling action.

Kratom

Kratom leaf is not currently a federally scheduled controlled substance in the United States. Its status at the state, county, and municipal level varies considerably, and several states have enacted their own frameworks. Because that patchwork changes, we do not publish state-by-state claims.

Cat's Claw

Uncaria tomentosa is not a federally controlled substance and is sold in the U.S. as a botanical ingredient, generally in the dietary supplement category, subject to FDA regulations governing supplements — including the rule that supplement marketing may not make disease claims. A given Cat's Claw product may be lawful across all fifty states,* but that depends on the specific formulation of the product and on applicable state and local law, and no responsible seller should tell you otherwise without those qualifications.

What this comparison does not say

It is worth being explicit, because comparison articles in this category are frequently written to imply something they do not state outright.

• This article does not claim that Cat's Claw produces effects resembling those of kratom, of 7-OH, or of any opioid. It makes no equivalence of any kind. These are different plants and different compounds.
• It does not rank them. Nothing here says one is better, safer, stronger, or more effective than another.
• It does not make health claims for any of the three. Naming the compounds a plant contains is chemistry, not a statement about what happens in a body.
• It is not legal advice. Regulatory status changes, sometimes quickly, and it varies by jurisdiction.

What the article does say is narrow and checkable: these are three distinct things with distinct sources, distinct constituents, and distinct regulatory treatment, and a label that blurs them is a label worth questioning. If a product's marketing leans on another substance's name or reputation rather than describing its own contents, that is a signal about the seller.

How to verify what is actually in a product

The single most useful habit is reading the Certificate of Analysis. A COA from an accredited third-party laboratory, tied to the batch number printed on your package, shows what the material was tested for and what was found — including, where relevant, testing that confirms the absence of a compound. Our COAs are published on the COA page, and we wrote a plain-language guide to reading one if you have not done it before. If a seller cannot produce a batch-matched COA from a named lab, that is the end of the conversation.

Frequently asked questions

Does Cat's Claw contain kratom, mitragynine, or 7-OH?

No. Uncaria tomentosa is a different species and does not naturally contain mitragynine or 7-hydroxymitragynine. The products we carry contain no kratom, no mitragynine, and no 7-OH.

If both plants are in the Rubiaceae family, aren't they basically related?

They are related in the same loose sense that coffee and gardenia are related — same large family, different genera. Family membership is a taxonomic grouping, not a statement about shared chemistry or shared properties.

Is 7-OH banned right now?

As of July 25, 2026, the DEA has filed Notices of Intent to temporarily place 7-OH above a stated threshold into Schedule I, with publication indicated on or after August 5, 2026 for a two-year period. Because the timeline and scope depend on the published order, check current federal sources before relying on any summary, including ours.

Why do these products end up in the same stores?

Retail category, not botany. Independent shops that sell botanical and specialty adult products tend to stock across the category. Shelf proximity carries no information about what is inside a package.

How do I tell which plant a product actually uses?

Look for the Latin binomial on the label — Uncaria tomentosa, Mitragyna speciosa, and so on. Common names are ambiguous; several unrelated plants are called "cat's claw." Then match the batch number to a current third-party COA.

*Statements marked with an asterisk have not been evaluated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Legality of any given product depends on its specific formulation and on applicable federal, state, and local law. Regulatory information in this article reflects publicly reported status as of July 25, 2026 and is not legal advice.

These statements have not been evaluated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. For adults 21+. Consult a qualified healthcare professional before use.