I'm planning extracting harmine and harmaline from Syrian Rue seeds following this guide. The next step would then be separate the harmine from the harmaline via this method. I have one question about each step:

When extracting from the Syrian Rue, why must non-iodized salt be used? Is the fear that the iodine will remain in the final product and lead to hyperiodinism? By my calculations (iodine RDA 150 ug, 4.1 grams of iodized salt contains 150 ug of iodine, 20x iodine RDA is safe, 30x questionable, salt 36g/100ml H2O solubility) 82 grams of iodized salt should be safe and thus >200 ml of salt saturated water should, likewise, be safe. From the wording of the guide it sounds like this could (should one not use too many seeds) be an acceptable amount of salt water.

So, the question in all that, is it safe to use iodized salt provided one does use so much as to have deleterious amounts of iodine present in the final material or is there some other reason for avoiding it?

And my second question: In the second guide I referenced the water/harmala solution is brought to a pH of 8 using sodium carbonate to precipitate out harmine. Would using sodium bicarbonate (water saturated with sodium bicarbonate has a pH around 8 ) to achieve this pH work (given one has no method to measure pH, at the moment?)

sodium bicarb would be fine, you'll just need more of it.

Some folk do use iodized salt and have no problems, it's just that pure salt gives cleaner results and as harmalas do funny things ti your stomach it good to have them as clean as possible.

what ph does sodium bicarbonate get to ? as it may be fine for harmine but i doubt all the harmaline will crash out.

Sodium bicarbonate goes to around 8.5, so yes, it is fine for most of the harmine but not harmaline.


SWIM once used iodized salt and after consuming the end product he started flushing, his skin became scaly, his eyes poped out and his ass filled with piles. Needless to say, he end up in the hospital where stomach cleansing and blood filtration saved his life while he was on coma for 3 years with gangrene on all of his five limbs. Let alone the brain damage....

Just joking, iodised salt is just fine! Iodised salt is sold for human consumption in the first place, right? SWIM had no problem with iodine that - his alkaloids on the other hand had no problem either.

Well iodized salt is bad for your health.
Go get some pure natural salt! Himalaya Salt or Rock Salt.

The plan was to use the bicarbonate to get the pH to a level where the harmaline would still be in the solution, and then step up to carbonate.


Haha, you had me going for a moment there. Just wanted to make sure. I figured most of the salt would be washed away when the grunge is saved after decanting, but, can't hurt to be safe.

Thanks a bunch, everyone.