I extracted rue, did one manske cycle as usual, then did a harmine / harmaline separation.
The harmine felt contaminated with harmaline, so I separated that fraction further.
After the 2nd separation, I had the impression it was even worse, so I decided to zinc-reduce it to get rid of the harmaline.
Before the reduction it glowed green, after the reduction it glowed blue - which I saw for the first time in my life.
During basing, a pH depression occurred around pH 7.3 and went all the way to 6.29. I based it to pH 10 or so.
I bioassayed 275 mg of the freebase, having assumed a significant fraction of it was THH. This was followed by 6.5 g chaliponga.
The first that I noticed was the freebase was devoid of any strong / bitter taste. It was bland. Also, the texture wasn't sandy like harmala freebases are, but more like corn flour or something; soft and spongy.
In the first 90 minutes I felt nearly nothing at all, thinking maybe quite a lot of it was THH, making the harmine content too low to activate the DMT. However, I wasn't feeling THH that much either, which was weird. So I ate a couple of slices of bread with olive oil and a 2/3 head of garlic.
Within 15-20 minutes it hit me like a ton of bricks. I struggled and perhaps the large amount of food in my stomach was contributing much to my nausea. Both harmala and DMT effects were strong. I also felt very cold for some 10-15 minutes, unable to get warm even under the warm blanket, which I figured was a pressure drop due to the garlic on top of the already hypotensive harmalas / DMT.
However, the harmalas didn't feel like harmine. There was definitely a different alkaloid in there, one I didn't like. It was annoying, kind of like harmaline, but a bit less.
The most annoying effects would come in waves, randomly. The harmala and DMT effects lasted quite long (a good 8 hours), but the most annoying effects grew less and less frequent and had all but disappeared by the 3.5 - 4 hour mark. There were still annoying background non-harmine effects for the rest of the experience, but the randomly occurring rushes were gone.
The following day I had an afterglow (with mild THH effects, which must be due to the THH content) and it was quite nice.
What alkaloid could it be? It crashed out in harmine's pH depression in both separation cycles. It doesn't glow green and doesn't taste bitter. So it can't be harmaline. It can't be harmine either as harmine feels nice. I used to associate these effects with harmaline, but that could have been due to its tendency to co-occur with harmaline in unseparated / poorly separated rue extracts.
It's hard to describe the undesirable effects, as they're physical. They include lightheadedness, tinnitus and a sharp, cold, metallic quality. Also 'cotton' sensations in my head.