I was wondering if anyone has done any research or personally tried Sophora flavescens as an MAOI to make spice orally active? I was looking for an alternative natural MAOI that would not produce nausea; Sophora flavescens used as an herbal supplement does not, in fact it seems to have multiple health benefits. This is the only research that I could find on the subject (the abstract and the fulltext front page preview are as much as I can find about it without buying the actual study):

http://www.springerlink....ontent/128j0244324k3485/

I was thinking about buying some and doing a methanol extraction, then working with the doses (I guess translating from moles to grams to mg/kg for the mice, then scale up to my weight) to find any potential MAOI activity on myself. I do understand that if this works and it inhibits MAO-B activity (as well as MAO-A, which is more what we're looking for here) I will have to restrict my diet to reduce tryamine.

Any ideas, previous experiences, comments, or suggestions?

(I posted this in open discussion, but this seems to be better placed)

Interesting stuff!

Do note that the active isolates preferentially inhibit MAO-B more than type A, and the abstract doesnt say whether or not the inhibition is reversible or not-this is pretty important to know, methinks.

Many plants have maoi effects but are not appropriate for an aya analog. Yohimbe for example. Swim feels it's beat to stick with harmalas. Be sure to donlots of research on what these chemicals do to the body.

LD50 for Sophora alkaloids extract is more than 40g, and I'd probably be taking it in milligram doses. The components of the alkaloids seem to be universally positive in their effects from what I've researched. So with that I'm not too worried.

As for preferring MAO-B inhibition, if you look at it it's only twice the dose for MAO-A inhibition, and with such small doses it seems negligible to me.

Regardless, I shall let you all know how things go in the coming weeks.

Looking forward to hearing about the results.