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Kratom COAs: What to Check for Metals and Product Identity

By KratomCBDDirect.com Editorial Team | Sources checked October 6, 2026

This article is educational information, not medical or legal advice. KratomCBDDirect.com is an independent publication. It is not a laboratory, a medical provider, or a government agency. This page contains no affiliate links, product rankings, or purchase links.

The short answer

A certificate of analysis (COA) is a laboratory's report on one sample, tested by one method, on one date. When you are looking at metals and product identity, a COA helps you ask sharper questions. Was this sample tested for metals at all, and which ones? Does this report actually belong to the package in front of me?

What a COA cannot do is show that a product is safe, that the next batch will match, or that kratom is right for any person. FDA warns consumers not to use kratom because of the risk of serious adverse events, including liver toxicity, seizures, and substance use disorder. FDA also says kratom is not lawfully marketed in the U.S. as a drug product, a dietary supplement, or a food additive in conventional food. Some states, such as Utah, spell out what a COA must include, and the sections below use that as one example.

Below is a comparison card you can fill in for any COA, then the reasoning behind each line.

The COA comparison card

Print this or copy it into your notes. Fill it in once per report. If you are comparing two reports, fill in one set of blanks for each. Any blank you cannot fill is an omission, and an omission is information.

  • Sample ID. Find the lot or batch number on the report and compare it character by character with the number on your package. Report A: ______ Report B: ______ Matches package: yes / no / no number on package.
  • Test date. Note both the date the lab received the sample and the date testing was completed. Report A: ______ Report B: ______
  • Form tested. Raw powder, capsule, extract, or finished packaged product? Report A: ______ Report B: ______
  • Laboratory. Name, address, and any accreditation the report states. Report A: ______ Report B: ______
  • Method. Is a method named for the metals test? Report A: ______ Report B: ______
  • Analytes. List each metal that has its own row. Report A: ______ Report B: ______ Metals with no row: ______
  • Units and limits. For each metal, record the unit, the result (or “not detected”), and the limit printed next to it. Report A: ______ Report B: ______
  • Identity evidence. Does the report say how the plant or product was identified (a product photo, a processor name, an identity test), or does it only list alkaloid amounts? Report A: ______ Report B: ______
  • Omissions. Anything above you could not fill in. Write it down as “not stated,” not as “fine.”

Metals: what the numbers can and cannot tell you

Why people ask about metals in kratom

FDA tested 30 kratom products from a variety of sources and reported lead and nickel at concentrations that exceed safe exposure for oral daily drug intake. FDA said heavy users could be exposed to many times the safe daily amount, and that a typical long-term user could potentially develop heavy metal poisoning, which could include nervous system or kidney damage, anemia, high blood pressure, or increased risk of certain cancers.

Keep three limits in mind. FDA's table is labeled as current as of April 3, 2019. The page does not describe the 30 products as a representative sample of the market. And a separate FDA Science Forum poster abstract about the agency's 2018 survey of 26 kratom products says validated methods for screening toxic elements in kratom products were lacking, so FDA chemists modified an existing method and used a drug-impurity guidance to set reporting limits. The method behind a number matters.

Other labs have found metals too. A small study of eight products bought from shops in Chicago's western suburbs tested for nickel, lead, chromium, arsenic, mercury, and cadmium. Seven products showed significant nickel, lead, and chromium, and one was negative for metals (abstract). Eight products from one area cannot describe a market, but the study shows that results differ from product to product.

Same name, very different results

By my reading of FDA's table, the measured values spanned a wide range. Lead ran from 252 to 2,700 ng/g, and nickel from 576 to 29,000 ng/g. Among products with “Maeng Da” in the name, nickel ranged from 576 to 20,100 ng/g. A strain-style name tells you nothing about a metals result; for more on that, see what kratom label terms do not prove. Two liquid products in the same table listed lead as “not detected above 200 ng/g,” a good example of a result that is only meaningful alongside its limit.

Read the unit before the number

FDA's table uses nanograms per gram (ng/g). Other reports use micrograms per gram (µg/g), parts per million (ppm), or milligrams per kilogram (mg/kg). By simple arithmetic, 1,000 ng/g equals 1 µg/g, which equals 1 ppm and 1 mg/kg. For example, the Chicago-area study's reported nickel range of 0.73 to 7.4 µg/g is 730 to 7,400 ng/g. A COA that mixes units, or leaves the unit off, cannot be compared with anything else.

A per-gram result is not a daily exposure. It becomes one only when multiplied by the amount a person actually takes. As a hypothetical, a product at 500 ng/g carries 0.5 µg of lead in each gram, and the total depends on how many grams are consumed. This article does not suggest any amount.

That dependence is why published estimates swing. A September 2024 abstract compilation hosted by clintox.org includes an assessment that pooled three published studies covering 68 kratom products and compared them with permissible daily exposure limits (5 µg/day for lead, 200 µg/day for nickel, 15 µg/day for arsenic). At an assumed 3 g daily amount, 7.4% of products would exceed the lead limit. At an assumed 25 g, 70.6% would. The abstract also reported that non-extract products (powders, capsules, tablets) generally had higher concentrations of elemental impurities than extract products. This is a conference abstract built on modeling assumptions, not a verdict on any product and not a safe-amount guide.

Check which metals have a row

FDA's findings centered on lead and nickel. The pooled abstract above also looked at arsenic and cadmium, and the Chicago-area panel added chromium and mercury. A report that lists only one or two metals is silent on the rest. Write “no row” on your card rather than assuming a metal was checked and found absent.

Check what “not detected” means on that report

“Not detected” means the method did not find the metal at the lab's stated limit. It does not mean zero. For how detection and quantification limits work, and for the four statuses a report line can have, see our guide to missing analytes and detection limits on a kratom lab report. The same logic applies to metals rows.

Product identity: three different questions

“Identity” can mean three things, and a COA may speak to only some of them.

1. Is this report about the product I have?

This is what the sample ID, test date, and product description are for. Utah's registration program is one example of what a state asks for. The state requires a COA to show a lot or batch number that matches the product's lot or batch number, the date received, the date testing was completed (within the last six months before registration), the method for each test, a photo of the tested product, the processor's name and address, and the laboratory's name and address. It also requires a third-party lab with ISO/IEC 17025:2017 accreditation, with an exception for labs working toward it, and it specifies testing on the finished product in its final packaged form. That is one state's program, not a universal rule, but it shows what a more complete report can look like. A report missing these items is not necessarily wrong, but you cannot tell whether it is yours.

2. Is the plant what the label says?

Kratom is Mitragyna speciosa. Researchers have raised concerns about adulteration, substitution, and inconsistent quality in commercial products. A 2026 study in Plants combined DNA barcoding with chemical profiling and reported that the ITS and ITS2 regions distinguished kratom from allied species (abstract). An earlier Scientific Reports study (2021) noted that identifying the plant from dried powder or finished products is difficult, and tested a DNA-based method for it (abstract).

Utah's list of required tests, as I read the page, covers alkaloid content, foreign matter, microbial, metals, pesticide, residual solvent, mycotoxin (when requested), and additive limits, and does not name a species-identification test. If a COA gives no identity method, you cannot tell how, or whether, the plant itself was confirmed. Write that down as “not stated.”

3. Does the chemistry look like the plant?

FDA describes 7-hydroxymitragynine (7-OH) as a naturally occurring but minor alkaloid, under 2% of total alkaloid content in natural kratom leaf, with substantially greater opioid-receptor potency than mitragynine. A 2016 study by Lydecker and colleagues reported that several commercial products had 7-OH concentrations substantially higher than raw leaf, which the authors described as probable adulteration (abstract). An alkaloid panel is therefore a chemical profile, useful for noticing a product that looks unlike leaf. It is not proof of species or origin. To read a 7-OH line, start with the guide linked in the metals section.

What a COA cannot establish

  • That a product is safe, or appropriate for you.
  • That other lots, or the same brand's other products, look the same. FDA's own table shows wide spread between products.
  • That a metal is “absent.” Not detected is relative to a limit.
  • What any amount of a metal means for a particular person's health.
  • That kratom is legal where you live. Federal and state rules change. The FDA kratom page I checked is current as of December 2, 2025. FDA's 7-OH page, updated July 13, 2026, describes a DEA notice of intent to begin temporary scheduling for 7-OH above a proposed threshold. Check FDA, and your state health or law enforcement agency, for current status.

Who to ask, and what each can answer

  • The laboratory named on the report: how it set its limits, which method it used, and whether it issued that report for that sample ID.
  • Your state agency: what your state requires. FDA says state health and law enforcement agencies are the best resource on state kratom laws.
  • A physician or pharmacist: health questions and medication interactions. This matters most if you take other medicines, are pregnant, or have liver, kidney, or blood pressure concerns. FDA's pages link kratom to liver toxicity, to kidney damage and high blood pressure in heavy metal poisoning, and to neonatal withdrawal after prolonged exposure before birth.
  • FDA reporting: if you have a bad reaction, FDA encourages reports through MedWatch. FDA's 7-OH page lists the Poison Help Line (1-800-222-1222) for a suspected reaction to a 7-OH product, and 911 for a life-threatening event.

What you can do next, even if you buy nothing

  1. Photograph the label and keep it with the COA. Our guide to saving label, receipt, and batch details covers what to save.
  2. Fill in the comparison card and circle every blank.
  3. Write your remaining questions for the lab, the state, or a clinician before you contact them.

What is still unknown

FDA's 30-product dataset is dated, and nothing here shows how today's products compare. Published metals estimates depend heavily on assumed daily amounts. No source I checked establishes a metals threshold that is “safe” for an individual. And a COA, however complete, describes a sample, not a guarantee.

Sources checked October 6, 2026

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