*note citric acid is not the same as lemon or lime juice, and obviously the converse stands as well.*

Procedure:
120grams of peganum harmala seeds were macerated to a fine powder using a coffee grinder.

a splash of lemon juice was added to 1.2L of tap water. To this the seed powder was added and set to boil for 20 minutes(I'd like for someone to try 5 minute boils, seriously, it should be sufficient but a test is needed and I am out of seeds). The seed mush is then filtered off using a paper towel and a plastic pasta strainer(or a t-shirt, whatever you want...). This boil is repeated 2 more times collecting the water each time.

*note: for small amounts such as 30 grams of seed powder, use ascorbic acid as the acid and put into the microwave to boil for 2 minutes for each boil(175mL of water for each boil will be plenty). Boiled for 2 minutes, not put into the microwave for two minutes. Make sure you use a big cup/flask because there will be splashing hence for small quantities only.*

The solutions were filtered through cotton balls once and left to sit over night in mason jars.

After sitting over-night the solutions are again filtered through ripped up pieces of cotton-balls at the bottom of a funnel. Replace them after every 250mL's or so to speed this up. Cotton balls are cheap. This takes some time, do some home-work or something.

1.7 grams - 2 grams of NaOH(amount depends on volume... obviously) is dissolved in 30 mL's of water and added to a jar. The jar is then mixed until it becomes a greenish opague color. This is repeated for each jar.

The jars are left to sit as a precipitate forms for a few hours. Note: don't let these sit for too long, some creepy probably undesirable precipitate comes out after about 18 hours. Then they are filtered through coffee filters. The solutions are combined into a waste container(to be acidified and composted later) and the filters with precipitates saved.

The filters are allowed to dry. These don't have to be completely dry but the coffee filters must be dry enough to scrape the crude harmalas off of. All of the solids are combined into a small dish of some kind, or an evaporating dish if you have one handy.

100mL of water is boiled in a microwave(takes 60 seconds this way in a thin walled flask). Quickly 2.1grams of citric acid is added to the solution, it dissolves almost immediately. The 10 grams or so of crude harmalas are quickly added to this solution and stirred for 2-3 minutes using a glass stirring rod.

The solution is filtered while still hot through a coffee filter. You will notice that this filter get's black goop all over it, so this time you are keeping the solution...

This solution is then basified and filtered through a coffee filter. The coffee filter is allowed to dry(some-what). Like magic the 10grams of crude becomes about 5 grams of goldenish crude. Neat...

Then the semi-dried solids are transferred to a small dish again. 60mL's of water are boiled via microwave and 1.7 grams of citric acid are quickly added to it. The solids are transferred to this water solution and stirred for 2-3 minutes or so.

The solution is filtered to remove again any insoluble impurities. While still warm, to this solution, 15 or so grams of non-iodized salt are added ala manske. The solution quickly forms a precipitate(5 minutes or so at most or something is wrong). Before it has even settled the solution is filtered through coffee filters(you can wait, but why?). This might be sludgey/hard to pour so if need be add more NaCl saturated water solution too it for pouring purposes.

*Note - if you have extra manske stuff stuck to the sides of your jar/flask you can collect it by saturating 40ml of water with 10g or so of NaCl, swirling it around and pouring it into the funnel as well...

Now the coffee filter with a yellow precipitate inside should be mostly drained of water. A fresh collection vessel is placed underneath the funnel. 90mL of water is boiled via microwave and poured into the funnel(that is 'clogged' with harmalas) and the funnel is stirred with a glass stirring rod to ensure the harmalas go into solution. The funnel is left to drain. You should now see Harmala HCl crystals at the botto of the collection vessel.*Note - if you still have harmalas in your funnel feel free to add a little more boiling water to the funnel and allow it to drain.*

Now the solution with the crystalline precipitate is acidified with vinegar and mixed(probably not a necessary step). A few grams of NaOH(depends on how much hot water you used obviously) are added to the solution and stirred until a milky white opaque color takes over the flask/jar.

The solution is filtered through a coffee filter and allowed to dry. A white precipitate should be there. Yield is pending/drying but it looks like at least 3-4 grams...

Yield: 4.3grams of slightly off-white harmalas.(4.3g/120g * 100% = 3.6%) Similar in color to the final results done on alcohol crystallization attempts. When put into a test tube with them they are indistinguishable from each other except one 'layer' is more finely powdered with some sparkling visible.

A burn test was done on the finished product to test for large amounts of ionic contaminants. There was nothing substantial/visible, the compound turned to ash with some residual goop(normal).

Similar in color to the results of this tek. https://www.dmt-nexus.me....aspx?g=posts&t=7948

Maybe some of it is vasicine, though if the manske works that should have become soluble inside of the saturated NaCl solution. After filtering the saturated NaCl solution it was noted that the NaCl solution was yellow so something was taken out from the harmalas, it's assumed that this works and is a good standard extraction.

I'd like for someone else to try this and give me their yield results. Sure it's more work than a traditional manske but the yield kind of seems like it's worth it... Also someone should try 5 or ten minute boils as well, seriously.

Edit - I might have taken pictures although my camera can't read SD cards and is in the 'shop'. So if someone else wanted too take pictures I'd highly encourage it.

Chromatography and TLC will be done on this finished product, maybe I'll report back with that information. Although I doubt sincerely that anyone here would really care.

I care thank you

Good work there! My only complain: do not be too quick to judge that "noone will care". Many people do, and such date are invaluable...An extraction can be found almost anywhere, analytical work on it is much more rare...

Well another neat tip for clean-up I found was to reflux 30mL of acetone or high concentration(90%+) isopropyl alcohol. Then pour it on top of a gram of the final product. Stir well. Allow to evaporate. A layer of red/brown crud will stick to the sides of the jar/evaporating dish and the nice sparkling white mass(not crystals) can be scraped/collected.

Not necessary but if your looking for even cleaner results I must say I enjoyed the results of this. I'm sure this can be scaled up but I never tried it.

Ah , here is the whole "harmala red" issue which i do not think has been answered yet. Some people might support that the red gunk you observe is not an impurity soluble in alcohol/acetone but more or a reaction product of harmalas that forms in those solvents (an oxide?). There were some experiments by Phlux sometimes ago and an analysis also of the red goo...I cannot remember though if it was conclusive.

Fascinating. This red crystalline product was more prevalent in the isopropyl alcohol verses the acetone. Sounds worthy of investigation.


- It should be said that the ring of 'oxides' was brown in the isopropyl alcohol evaporation and crusty, while the acetone ring was red and crystalline.