so i am growing rue, and recently re-potted one plant, which had a huge thick yellow root that smelled very strongly of the kind of smell you get from a brew of seeds (leading me to the suspicion of strong potency in the root).

i also remember something about terence mckenna talking about the high harmala alkaloid content (which he attributed the yellow pigmentation to) found in the leaves of the peganum harmala.

so my question is this: can leaves and roots be harvested and extracted as they were seeds?

I doubt leaves are worth it. The characteristic smell of plant tissue (very clear after manipulating stems or leaves and sniffing your fingertips) is most likely due to the plant pigments and other compounds, also present in the seeds and in a rue tea, but not the harmala alkaloids.

The only reference I have of analysis of P. Harmala leaves does not report the usual actives as present in leaves, and traditional entheogenic use always mentioned seeds only.

That said, roots and leaves might have other therapeutic properties. Never throw anything away without cooking

One way to get an idea would be to extract a small amount of root and see if it flouresces under UV light. Or even simpler: see if the cut end of a root flouresces.

I'd be willing to bet 10 bucks that the roots do have harmalas. B. caapi roots have a similar yellow color and are known to have a higher percentage than the stem.

That said, collecting seed doesn't hurt the plant. Harvesting roots will.

yea, i was thinking about just grinding the entire plant and extracting that (though now i think i will only stick to seeds and roots)..
i have a ton of viable rue seeds, so i can grow as many as i need.

also, are seedpods work keeping? or just the seeds..

Root are definitely active. I had a plant take a turn for the worse. The whole top died so I made the best of a sad situation and experimented with the roots. If I remember correctly they were similar in potency to seeds, it's been awhile though so can't say for sure. Seeds are more sustainable so in most situations they are the way to go, but if you have a plant that's dying anyways might as well try to make use of what's left of it.

Also, in many places the species is considered a noxious weed and uncontained growth is punished by fines.
If plants spreading out of the garden must be killed, harvesting for medicine is better than slaughtering with glyphosate.

Don't have a reference on hand but I remember reading that the plant had a cleaner alkaloid makeup than the seeds.

The page at this link summarizes what I could learn as of a few years ago. Maybe it can help?

http://www.erowid.org/li...c2_peganum_harmala.shtml

In my experience the roots are more or less half as potent as the seeds. 10g roots would make me feel as 5g seeds. But i'm more interested in the stem and leaves since my plants top die every year. Never tryed to drink a tea from the stem and leaves, to bad tasting for less a experience.. but need to try a extraction, i'm certain it is a much better alternative as other more common herbs like passionflower, etc

that is awesome, thanks KT!
good to know there are indeed beta-carbolines in the ruets.


it was in the beginning of this video where mckenna briefly mentions the yellow color of the leaves/branches being the result of the harmalas....

still can't find any info to back that up...

maybe i will just have to extract it and see for myself.