I've been working on harmala body paints. Isolating Harmine, Harmaline, and reducing harmaline to THH for three different fluorescing colors.

For paint, it works great. It also has mildly noticeable psychoactive effect.

If i add in some DMSO, or use a DMSO solution to rehydrate the pigment to apply it, would it make a significant difference in bioavailability?

Hope you're all living your best lives <3

Sad to see nobody replied.

From my limited experience I would say probably yes.

I've heard that DMSO reduced the amount of needed substance to an equivalent of what would be used in a intravenous ROA.

DMSO has to be used with caution, because it pulls everything that is on the skin directly to the blood. It is generally not safe to mix anything with it, swallowing it could lead to a lots of adverse effects, and if dosed high enough might end lethal.

If you put it on clean skin, on it's own it could be pretty safe. With anything added, unpredictable.

MAOIs on their own are unpredictable enough, adding a class 3 solvent that is highly bipolar and effective in disolving pretty much anything is not recommended.

If you have to use a solvent, try ethanol ir better yet glycerin. It does not cross the skin barrier easily, if at all.

Brennendes Wasser recrystallized harmala alkaloids (maybe by accident - check the end of this post) from DMSO.

This may indicate that their solubility at room temperature is rather limited - which indeed seems like the most likely situation - but afaik the chemical identity of the crystals was not ascertained. DMSO can act as a mild oxidant under certain conditions (low pH being one of the driving forces) so we need to examine the possibility of chemical transformation being at work here.

The upshot of this echoes AwesomeUsername's warning - you'd need to know that this procedure was safe enough. Would bathing in harmala tea make a suitable alternative?

I think with Harmalas having an effect at > 100 mg it will be hard to even get a true effect with transdermal application via DMSO. I guess most stuff that has a decent activity would be research chemicals with dosage lower than 10 mg? But of course it will ultimately be also dependend on the chemical structure and thus pharmacocinetics of each individual substance. But because of that I guess Harmala Bodypaint will not allow us to get high non-voluntarily?

Still the safest route if just caring about the colour would be a vinegar solution I guess. Skin will get not irritation from a 1 % Acetic Acid solution and you would only apply 1 ml across dozens of cm² I guess. I also think the protonated salt form does show the same fluorescence? Maybe just try this as it will also make it impossible for the ionized form to cross skin barrier, if it's just about esthetics.

Also an IPA Bodypaint would be cool, as it evaporates even faster (and will not act as a strong carrier like DMSO). Benefit would be IPA evaporating fast, while a big load of Vinegar/Harmalas would keep your skin wet for longer time, if you are not in plain sun (probably not, if Fluorescence should be the target )