As Banisteriopsis Caapi is not widely available (and not really sustainable anyway) to the masses, we have to fallback to Peganum Harmala
as our main source for Harmala alkaloids.
The main benefit of Banisteriopsis Caapi is that during preparation of traditional brews the final result is often ends up with a mix of
three alkaloids: Harmine, Harmaline and TetraHydroHarmine. Now there is no clear info on why it happens, could very well be because of
prolonged boiling of acidic solution in metallic containers produces some hydrogen and this hydrogen reduces the Harmaline into THH,
or could be for some other reason (maybe something in caapi?)
All i know for sure that Harmaline -> TetraHydroHarmine reduction is possible and TetraHydroHarmine is very desirable substance in your
pharma or aya brews. And this is what we are going to focus on this thread. How to get THH with minimal risk of contaminating the final
product with possible toxins.
Over the time various reduction ideas have popped on nexus. Some of them use well know reduction techniques (Zinc in acidic environment),
Others propose something exotic like: boiling harmaline in ascorbic acid (as reduced agent) for prolonged time (wasnt proven to work).
Another idea was using sodium borohydride on harmaline dissolved in ethanol (methanol) which is another well known reduction path.
I have explored the Zinc path in both Acetic Acid and Orthophosphoric Acid and had good results.
Now, Both Acetic and Orthophosphoric yield the THH, but Acetic reduction takes about 18 hours, while Orthophosphoric completes in about 30 minutes.
Acetic reduction happens at room temperature while Orthophosphoric requires heating up the solution to get reduction going fast.
Both of the methods described above yield THH, but they are also accompanied by reasonable paranoia, as Zinc dust available from common sources
is ALWAYS of suspicious quality and most probably contains Lead and Cadmium contamination.
The possible risk of introducing Lead and Cadmium into your system (Both accumulate and cause nerve damage and are carcinogenic) is a major blocker
for us. It makes the THH not worth the effort and too dangerous health-wise.
The heavy metal contamination can be tackled by multiple cycles of AB reduction with ammonia/hydrocloric acid (about 4-5 cycles) to reach acceptable
levels of contamination, but this results in the loss of about 50% of the yield and the whole process becomes way too complicated for kitchen chemistry.
Now, the sodium borohydride in methanol/ethanol path is much cleaner than using metallic reduction (toxic contamination-wise) but the substance is not
cheap and not easy to get, so here is another blocker. (Also, using methanol in the kitchen is a NO-NO)
Luckily, we have an alternative path, which is cleanest of them all and if my current experiment succeeds it will be a game-changer for folks with
kitchen labs who want to experience THH.
The reduction of Harmaline->THH is actually done by the hydrogen which is being released when metal comes into contact with acid. There is another
way to get hydrogen - electrolysis. During the water electrolysis both Oxygen and Hydrogen are being created, and both
the reduction of Harmaline->THH and oxidation of THH->Harmaline will be taking place in the electrolytic chamber, but luckily the equilibrium is shifted
in reduction direction. (We have discussed the theory in chat and it seems legit).
Now, what it means in practice is that we dont need any complex electroliser setup to achieve the goal, a pair of graphite plates and some sulphuric/orthophosphoric
weak solution and an old cellphone charger will suffice. The only contamination (assuming the acid of choice was clean) would be some graphite flakes at the bottom
of the flask, but those can be filtered out easily.
I am going to run the experiment tomorrow, and hope for success.
Updates will follow.
P.S
I am not completely happy with the wording of this thread, so edits will follow.
Also, have to upload some pictures.
Gate Gate Pāragate Pārasaṃgate Bodhi Svāhā