At this time, the CDC recommends that people not consume kratom in any form because it could be contaminated with salmonella:
An outbreak of 28 salmonella infections in 20 states has been linked to kratom products, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a statement Tuesday. Though no deaths have been reported, 11 people have been hospitalized.
[...] California had the highest number of salmonella cases (three). North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania and Utah each reported two cases while Alabama, Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, North Dakota, New York, South Carolina and Tennessee each reported a single case, the CDC found.
Kratom should not be consumed in any form, the CDC said, because the source of salmonella contamination has not been identified.
Also at The Verge, STAT News, and CBS.
Previously: DEA Welcomes Kratom to the Schedule I List Beginning September 30
The Calm Before the Kratom Ban
FDA Blocks More Imports of Kratom, Warns Against Use as a Treatment for Opioid Withdrawal
FDA Labels Kratom an Opioid
Related: Opioid Commission Drops the Ball, Demonizes Cannabis
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 21 2018, @04:23PM
Wikipedia: "M. speciosa is indigenous to Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, and Papua New Guinea".
Wikipedia: "Most infections are due to ingestion of food contaminated by animal feces; or by human feces, such as by a food service worker at a commercial eatery."
That explains everything.