SWIM decided to write up a theoretical report on how to extract alkaloids from p harmala and decided to include some theoretical GC-MS data. Remember this is theoretical and was not and should not be performed where these alkaloids are controlled substances.

Objective: To extract Harmine and Harmaline from Peganum harmala.

Methods:

1- 100 gram seeds powdered in blender.

2- Immersed in 400 mL distilled water made acidic with 5 drops glacial acetic acid.
Let stand overnight. Stirred occasionally.

3- Heated extract for about 1 hour and then filtered through cotton wool and a buchner funnel with vacuum.

4- Added 300 mL hot acidic dH2O (10 drops acetic acid).
Let stand overnight with occasional stirring.

5- Filtered same way as above. Pooled filtrates.

6- Added another 300 mL hot acidified dH2O. Let stand for about 1 hour with occasional stirring. Filtered same way as above.

7- The pooled filtrates were then filtered through glass fiber filter with sea sand (previously cleaned with HCl) through a buchner funnel under vacuum. There by 600 mL of filtrate was obtained. Note this is less water then started with so some residual water was left in the seed mush.

8- To this was added 60 grams NaCl to make 10% salt solution. The solution was then boiled down to 300 mL to make a 20% salt solution and stored in 4 degrees C over a weekend. In retrospect the solution should have been boiled down then salt added. Note the solution turned dark brown after concentrating.

9- The precipitant observed was filtered through filter paper in a buchner funnel under vacuum and allowed to dry over night.

10- 1.5 grams of crude alkaloids was thus obtained. It was a brown residue clearly impure with brown solid particles mixed with crystalline alkaloids.

11- The crude alkaloid extract was then dissolved in 60 mL hot water and immediately filtered to remove the solid impurities.

12- To this solution 6 grams NaCl was added to make a 10% salt solution. This solution was stored at 4 degrees C for a few hours.

13- Alkaloid precipitation was observed. Alkaloids were filtered again with filter paper and buchner funnel under vacuum. The alkaloids were dried over night.

14- Thus a yield of 1 gram alkaloids was obtained as a light brown crystalline powder. Edit: The 60 mL of filtrate was chilled a second time and more alkaloids precipitates so yield more like 1.2g.

15- Purity was analyzed by GC-MS. Only 2 peaks were observed in a concentrated analytical sample. Harmine was the major component along with harmaline as a minor component.


Overall this represents a 1% total yield. In the literature p harmala is said to have 2-7% alkaloids. However some of these alkaloids are not harmine or harmaline. SWIM would like to discuss a literature report that concerns the alkaloids in p harmala in another thread.

I am slightly worried about this step; The solution after the acidic soaks should be pretty rich in lipids, starch and other polysaccharides from the seeds and a pain in the arse to filter. I wonder whether the glass fiber filtration was leaving behind lots of lipid/polysaccharide coagulates which could contain/trap a good amount of alkaloids.

Has SWIY tried to dissolve the residue from the glass fiber filter on fresh acidic water, then re-filter?

A good technique is to use a UV lamp to monitor how many alkaloids are left behind during each step

^^Your right the yield was low and this could be the reason. SWIMs theoretical friend got lazy at a certain point in the filtering.

Heard that green seeds are the highest in alkaloids, but vendors offer only the ripened ones, bastads.

^^Interesting have not heard of that. What yields are people typically getting when doing harmine extractions from syrian rue?

1-2% is average in terms of harmine and harmaline together. Not including the other alkaloids.

SWIM took 250mg extracted freebase harmalas with 50mg dmt recently and had a very good and strong experience.. SWIM was impressed how strong it was, and wonder if 50mg dmt hit so much, how comes SWIM could stand 200mg dmt some months ago haha


btw, as for extracting.. Before salting out the harmalas from the rue tea, wouldnt it help things a lot to first decant the rue tea, only filtering the last bit, doing this twice..? Then basically when reaching the step of salting out with NaCl, mostly only the harmalas and the excess salt would precipitate (instead of all the oils and other matter that falls down together if one mixes the salt without precipitating)

SWIM will definitely try that next time

Would this analysis have revealed the presence of uterotonic alkaloids that are said to contaminate this kind of extraction?

SWIM found 200mg harmine/harmaline sufficient for full MAOI inhibition and SWIM tried 40mg of DMT and found it a bit too intense. But two friends found 50mg to be perfect (they might have had tolerance because they tripped recently before). Anyway next time SWIM would try lower DMT like 30-20mg to get a milder nice effect.



SWIM was able to filter the whole mixture quite quickly so did not bother decanting. Plus the alkaloids kept mixing up and wouldn't stick the glass. SWIM had no observed problems with NaCl precipitating. I might be missing what you are saying sorry.



SWIM wanted to make sure that this extraction removes the other alkaloids known the be found in peganum harmala as some of them are somewhat toxic and well no reason to mix in other compounds when they aren't adding anything positive to the effects. And in the analysis harmine and harmaline were the only compounds observed. SWIM used a concentrated sample to make sure nothing else was there and nothing else was seen. SWIM used a method similar to that found in reports that had detected the other alkaloids in peganum harmala seed infusions and they were able to detect the other components. So I think this method may avoid extracting them.