Human bioassay of Pinoline

6-Methoxy-1,2,3,4-tetrahydro-9H-pyrido[3,4-b]indole; 6-Methoxy-1,2,3,4-tetrahydro-β-carboline; 6-MeO-THBC.

Given the complete lack of human reports for pinoline, some was acquired and bioassayed, this being an endogenous compound MAOI compound that could be interesting and certainly worthy of looking at by someone. Despite its name, solid evidence that pinoline is made in the human or mammal pineal gland is lacking...interestingly no evidence was found for its presence in live rat pineal in Barker's analysis using highly sensitive and state-of-the-art experimental techniques, unlike DMT which was detected.[1] Research has indicated that pinoline passes the blood brain barrier poorly[2] and inhibits MAOI with an IC50 of 1.6um, which is around 1,000 less potent than harmine, and that you need a good 100mg/Kg in rodents to exceed 50% MAO inhibition[3] with such dosages used in previous rodent studies[4]. Still it was worth checking for psychoactivity outside of its MOAI effect. A special thanks to my Nexian friend who helped facilitate this.


500 mg of pinoline (97% purity) was obtained from a well known chemical supply company and bioassayed at various dosages (10 mg, 50 mg, 2x 100 mg, 200 mg). Samples were weighed via balance sensitive to 0.0001 g. All doses were ingested sublingually, under the tongue, unless otherwise stated, following brushing of teeth and gums. Dose was held for 20 minutes under tongue before swallowing. All doses were consumed in the late evening (after 10PM) in subject’s bedroom, with the only ambient light being candle light (not found to repress melatonin production[5], a precaution in case a similar inhibitory mechanism applies to pinoline). Subject was sober on all days of experiments with no other substances in system. Body weight of subject is 80 kg. Subject has previous experience (including sublingual use) of related compounds such as melatonin and plant derived beta-carbolines.

10 mg. (0.13mg/Kg). Slight feeling of relaxation and sedation. Very subtle, could be placebo.

50 mg. (0.63mg/Kg). 15 minutes after dosing, a feeling of relaxation and slight sedation felt. Sleep following experiment was deep and restful.

100 mg. (1.25mg/Kg). Dose insufflated. Subject immediately regretted this route of administration, due to intense nasal burn, and decided to abort experiment. After pain died down a feeling of relaxation experienced but could be partly down to influence of endorphins.

100 mg. (1.25mg/Kg). 10/15 minutes after dosing, a feeling of relaxation and slight sedation washes over subject. Feeling is reminiscent of a large dose of melatonin, with just a pinch of harmaline, although lacking the visionary psychoactive effects of the latter. Deep sleep following experiment.

200 mg. (2.5mg/Kg). 10/15 minutes of after dosing, a feeling of calm relaxation and slight sedation washes over subject. Seemingly little difference between this and the 100 mg dose in effect. No other noticeable effects noted.


Comments

At these dosages and via this route of administration, pinoline produces definite but subtle effects, primarily experienced as a feeling of calm and relaxation, a slight sedation and increased desire to lie down and relax. Feeling is most reminiscent of a large dose of melatonin, although did not seem to affect dreams like the latter can. Compared to 250 mg of pure (98%) harmaline hcl, the latter was experienced as a great deal more psychoactive in comparison, producing many more mental and physical effects, at this level pinoline was only slightly physical in effect. Pinoline was well tolerated at these dosage levels, no trace of side effects or hangover were experienced. At these dosages via this route of administration, pinoline had much more in common with the effects profile of melatonin than the plant derived beta-carbolines. So nothing Earth shattering here, but I guess any result is a step forward!

I know myself and others have experienced a mild harmalaesque visionary head space having ingested supplemental melatonin and woken during the night. While pinoline may be much more potent when produced in situ in the brain on the right sound of the blood brain barrier, I'm now not so sure pinoline is responsible for these mild psychedelic effects experienced by myself and others. The pineal metabolises melatonin into other compounds such as 5-Methoxytryptamine (aka Mexamine), so maybe these are partly responsible for such effects.


References

1. Barker, S.A., Borjigin, J., Lomnicka, I., & Strassman, R. (2013) LC/MS/MS analysis of the endogenous dimethyltryptamine hallucinogens, their precursors, and major metabolites in rat pineal gland microdialysate. Biomedical Chromatography, 27, 1690–1700

2. Leino, M., Airaksinen, M.M., Antikainen, R., Gynther, J., Kari, E., Kari, I. & Peura P. (1984) Distribution of 1,2,3,4-tetrahydro-beta-carboline and 6-methoxy-1,2,3,4-tetrahydro-beta-carboline in mice. Acta Pharmacologica et Toxicologica, 54, (5), 361-371.

3. Sparks, D.L., Buckholtz, N.S. (1980) 6-Methoxy-1,2,3,4-tetrahydro-beta-carboline: a specific monoamine oxidase-A inhibitor in CF-1 mouse brain. Neuroscience Letters, 20, (1), 73-8.

4. Sparks, D.L. & Bukholtz, N.S. (1980) Effects of 6-methoxy-1,2,3,4-tetrahydro-beta-carboline (6-MeO-THbetaC) on audiogenic seizures in DBA/2J mice. Pharmacology Biochemistry & Behavior, 12, (1), 119-124.

5. Harada, T. (2004) Effects of evening light conditions on salivary melatonin of Japanese junior high school students. Journal of Circadian Rhythms, 2, 4.

Endogenous beta-carbolines are fascinating to me. Interesting on the potency difference versus something like harmine or harmaline.

Would be intrigued to throw some pinoline in with an analog brew, some pharma, or even dosing some prior to smoking some changa. Not that there would be a huge difference in effects, but still would be fascinating to me.

Thanks for sharing.

Great work! Thanks for sharing.

I recall another nexian who was working with pinoline some years back reporting pretty much the exact same effects from it. So it's looking to be pretty consistent so far.

So... by my calculations you should have about 40mg or so left, yes? Could you perhaps try smoalking a bit and see wut the effects are? For science!

I do agree it would be interesting to play around with more, but I'd think you'd likely need to ingest several grams of the stuff to get an effect, well an MOAI effect anyway.

It would definitely be interesting to experiment further but I only had access to this half gram, and was in contact with a few high level scientists who were interested in it or had researched it in the past and were curious about my findings, so I did things by the book and stayed sober during the trials.

Ahh I even had a glass VaporGenie here I could have used for that!! Regrettably though, despite using a highly sensitive scale, I didn't seem to have any left over for some reason (I was originally intending to consume a 25mg dose, but in hindsight this wouldn't have contributed much). So I didn't have any more to spare for any other trials, a shame though!! Some of that 100mg I regrettably insufflated I could have used for vaping. Ain't hindsight a freaking niggle!!

Awesome, thanks for sharing this bancopuma!

That definitely matches the experiences another here has had with it.

I suspect that like with melatonin, pinoline isn't overly powerful on its own but really shines when combined with other beta-carbolines/tryptamines/techniques. It's been called a deep mind lubricant. As you probably already know I think we're deficient in melatonin, pinoline and many other things due to diet and artificial lighting (and the whole theory of Tony Wrights), so if there is any truth to that then this synergy wouldn't be surprising.

For me it has always been that putting several pieces of the puzzle together at once is when things get most interesting. Melatonin might suffice if pinoline is a metabolite but these experiments are still definitely worthwhile.

That's interesting, I did trawl through the Nexus threads to try and find some pinoline experience reports...I figured if there were any reports out there, it would be on here...but I couldn't find any. I guess I need to look harder! Good to know my experiences sync up to those reports though.

I did combine the pinoline with some third eye meditation with binaural and isochronic beats, but it didn't have a notable effect on my state of mind (compared to doing this while sober), and I didn't note any effect on dreams either which kinda surprised me, melatonin seems to have more of an effect on dreaming for me. I was kinda surprised how similar pinoline felt to melatonin though; it really didn't feel like the plant beta-carbolines, at least at these dosages. While melatonin is subtle in its own way, it passes the blood brain barrier much better and is very much more potent gram for gram than pinoline in effect it seems.

But yeah I do agree that almost all of us are melatonin deficient from artificial lighting and diet to some extent, and it is possible that fluoride accumulation in the pineal gland *may* be having an effect too, so possible our melatonin production is getting hit on multiple fronts it seems.