Syrian Rue Extraction: How To Make An MAOI At Home

If you’re drawn towards the exploration of the beneficial aspects of Syrian rue seeds, your interest likely lies in its use as a Monoamine Oxidase Inhibitor (MAOI). The seeds of Syrian rue, scientifically known as “Peganum harmala”, have long been recognized for their rich content of MAOIs. These include two primary compounds: harmaline and harmine, which are notably used in crafting Ayahuasca analogs or “pharmahuasca”.

The potency of the MAOIs within Syrian Rue seeds lies in inhibiting the degradation of DMT. This inhibition allows the DMT to become orally active, leading to enhanced and long-lasting psychedelic experiences. Throughout history, Syrian rue seeds have found use in diverse cultural and spiritual practices, and in some regions, they are known for their potential medicinal properties.

Syrian rue seeds harbor compounds called harmine and harmaline, which gain interest for their potential influence on the central nervous system and various physiological activities. Within the realm of psychedelic exploration, Syrian rue establishes itself as a fundamental MAOI, enhancing the intensity and duration of psychedelic experiences.

Cultural luminary Terence Mckenna discussed his use of Syrian rue in conjunction with mushrooms during the 1990s, leading to what he endearingly termed “Mushroom television”. This guide will offer you a comprehensive, step-by-step breakdown of how to extract a concentrated form of MAOI from Syrian rue seeds.

This extraction process takes about 48 hours, yet its simple and easy to do with tools you may already have available. After this extraction, you’ll be able to combine your Syrian rue with DMT fumarate to create your very own Ayahuasca analog or “pharmahuasca”.

Why do I need to extract Syrian rue seeds? Can’t I just eat them?

Extracting Syrian rue seeds to obtain their active compounds, particularly the MAOIs, can offer several benefits compared to consuming raw seeds. Here are a few of the reasons you should consider extracting them:

Standardized Dosage

Extracting Syrian rue seeds allows for a more precise and consistent dosage of the active compounds. Raw seeds can vary in their potency, making it difficult to accurately gauge the effects and potentially leading to unpredictable experiences.

Reduced Nausea and Discomfort

Raw Syrian rue seeds contain compounds that can cause nausea and discomfort when consumed. Extraction methods can help concentrate the desired compounds while minimizing the intake of these potentially unpleasant constituents.

Avoiding Unwanted Compounds

Syrian rue seeds contain a range of alkaloids, and consuming raw seeds means ingesting all of these compounds, which may include some that are not desired for the intended experience. Extraction can help isolate the specific compounds of interest while reducing exposure to unwanted substances.

Enhanced Bioavailability

Some extraction methods can enhance the bioavailability of the active compounds in Syrian rue seeds, potentially leading to a more efficient absorption and onset of effects.

Safer Use of MAOIs

Consuming raw Syrian rue seeds can carry risks associated with the presence of MAOIs, such as interactions with certain foods, medications, and substances. Extracting the MAOIs allows for a more controlled and informed use, reducing the potential for adverse reactions.

Tailored Experiences

By extracting and purifying the active compounds, individuals can have more control over the nature and intensity of their experiences. This can lead to a more personalized and intentional exploration of altered states of consciousness.

Less Bulk to Ingest

Raw Syrian rue seeds are often consumed in relatively large quantities, which can be challenging due to their bitter taste and potential for nausea. Extracts can provide a concentrated form that is easier to consume and digest.

Reduced Risk of Overconsumption

Extracts can potentially reduce the risk of accidentally ingesting excessive amounts of plant material, which could lead to unintended and potentially uncomfortable effects.

Getting started

To start the process of extracting MAOI from Syrian rue at home, you will first need to gather a few ingredients and supplies. Some of these tools you may already have on hand from your DMT extractions. If You want to learn how to extract DMT at home easily, check out my guide “How to extract DMT: A Simple Guide“. There you will find a step-by-step tek like this one.

Ingredients and supplies

1. Safety gear (goggles and Nitrile gloves).
2. 250 grams of Syrian Rue seeds. (I get mine here)
3. Pure sodium carbonate
4. Distilled water.
5. 5% white vinegar.
6. A small mesh strainer.
7. A medium-sized pot for boiling water (make sure it can hold at least 12 cups of water with room to boil).
8. A manual coffee grinder or a mortar and pestle (I prefer the manual coffee grinder for better results).
9. A few, quart-sized mason jars with lid rings.
10. Coffee filters (size #2).
11. Cotton balls and a sandwich bag
12.  A measuring cup that measures in milliliters.
13. A scale that measures in grams.
14. A glass pipette (The same one used for DMT extractions).
15.  A glass stirring rod or Magnetic stirrer (preferred)

How to extract Syrian Rue seeds step-by-step

1. Preparing the Syrian rue seeds

Begin by weighing out 250 grams of Syrian rue seeds. Place the seeds in a plastic bag and in a freezer for 24 hours. Syrian Rue seeds are very hard and freezing them for 24 hours will make grinding them up easier.

After 24 hours, remove the seeds from your freezer and begin grinding them in your manual coffee grinder or mortar and pestle. You do not want to powder the seeds; you want to grind the seeds till they are of a coarse consistency. If you powder the seeds too fine, it will make filtering difficult in the following steps. This is why I prefer the manual forms of grinding. You get a controllable grind of the seeds.

I honestly recommend the manual coffee grinder. It’s like a salt and pepper mill but you have control over how coarse or fine you can grind the seeds and it’s easier on your hands than the mortar and pestle. I recommend this one if you go this route.

2. Vinegar boiling the seeds (first boil)

Next, you will need to boil the crushed seeds in a vinegar bath. Place your ground seeds in your pot and cover the seeds with 12 cups of distilled water. You don’t have to use distilled water. Tap water, filtered or spring water will work fine. I personally prefer distilled for its PH level.

Add ¼ cup of white vinegar to your pot of water and seeds. This will raise the water’s PH and make it acidic. Turn your stove on high and bring the pot of water to a rolling boil. Once your water reaches a rolling boil, reduce the heat to a simmer and allow the liquid to reduce till it’s just above the level of your seeds. This will roughly take about 90 minutes.

After reducing the liquid in your pot, take your mesh strainer place it over another empty pot, and filter the seeds out of the liquid by pouring them through the mesh strainer. Save the liquid collected. This is now your collection pot for the next few boils of your seeds. This is the first Boil of 5 boils you will be doing on your seeds.

3. Second boil of the seeds

After filtering your seeds out of your first boiled liquid, return your seeds to the empty boiling pot and fill it with 10 cups of water and 2 tablespoons of white vinegar. Since you are using less water for the next few boils, you won’t need as much vinegar as your first boil.

Once again, bring your pot of seeds, water, and, vinegar to a boil, then reduce the heat and allow the liquid to reduce until it is just above the level of your seeds. Then pour the liquid and seeds through the mesh strainer, collecting the liquid in your collection pot that contains the liquid from your first boil.

Repeat this boiling and reducing process with 10 cups of water and 2 tablespoons of vinegar a total of 3 more times, making a total of 5 boils on your seeds, collecting the liquid from each boil in your collection pot.

Once you have boiled the seeds 5 times and collected the water, you can discard the seed matter. You no longer need them.

4. Reducing your collected Syrian rue water

Take your collection pot of rue water from your 5 seed boils and place it on your stove. Bring the pot of rue water to a boil then reduce the heat and allow the liquid to further reduce. You want to reduce the liquid to about 700ml. This will mean that all of the water in your pot will be able to fit into a quart-sized mason jar with room at the top.

5. Filtering your concentrated Syrian rue water

This step is the most time-consuming. However, doing this step correctly will ensure you have a top-quality end product that will greatly increase the length and quality of your future trips. When it comes to psychedelics, there are no cutting corners.

You are going to let your 700ml of Syrian rue water rest in the jar for 24 hours. Most teks typically will start the filtering process but I’ve found that a way to greatly speed up the filtering process is to allow your jar to rest. After letting your jar rest for 24 hours you will notice 2 layers. A sediment layer at the bottom and rue water at the top.

Collect and filter the rue water and leave behind the sediment. Using your pipette, collect the top layer of rue water a place it in a separate jar. Be careful not to suck up any of the sediment at the bottom. After collecting your rue water in another jar, you need to build two types of filters. One made of cotton balls and another one made of a coffee filter. First, make the one with cotton balls.

Take a sandwich bag and cut a small piece of one of the bottom corners off, making a little hole for your water to flow through. Place this bag over a mason jar with your hole facing in the jar. Hold the bag in place using a mason lid ring, then place a handful of cotton balls into the bag. This cotton filter is going to pre-filter any big chucks out of your water which can clog the coffee filter. Run your rue water through the cotton filter and allow it to collect in the jar. This process is going to go quickly because you removed most of the sediment already.

After running your rue water through the cotton filter, you need to run it through a coffee filter. Take an empty quart-sized mason jar and fix a coffee filter to the top of the jar using a jar ring like you did with the cotton filter. Begin pouring the water through the coffee filter and allow the water to collect in the jar. This process is very important to get right. You want all of the solid chunks out of your concentrated rue water. This is why grinding the seeds to a coarse grind instead of a powder is important.

Discard anything your cotton filter and coffee filter collect. Once you are 100% sure you have filtered all the solids out of your liquid you can move to the next step.

6. Preparing the base solution

With all your Rue water filtered, you need to make a base solution. Using your Pyrex measuring cup or a beaker, measure out 50ml of distilled water. For this step, I like using a glass beaker. It makes measuring precise.

After measuring out 50ml of water, using your scale, measure out 4 grams of sodium carbonate. Using a glass stirring rod or your magnetic stirrer, mix the sodium carbonate and water until the carbonate is fully dissolved.

7. Adding your base solution to your Syrian rue water (first Basification)

Once the carbonate is fully dissolved in your 50ml of water you need to add it to your rue water. Slowly pour the base solution into your jar of Rue water. What is cool about this step is once you add your base to the water you will see the water turn to a cream color. It will look like adding creamer to a cup of black coffee.

This reaction is all of the harmala’s or MAOI crystals instantly forming and precipitating out of the water. Using a clean glass stirring rod or your magnetic stirrer, mix the liquid in your jar until the liquid is an even cream color. Once you have mixed the jar thoroughly, it needs to rest for 24 hours.

cover the jar with a lid or sandwich bag. The bag or lid doesn’t have to be airtight; it is to prevent anything from falling in your jar as the crystals form over the next 24 hours. Allow the jar to rest for 24 hours. You can allow the jar to rest longer if you are at work or away however, let the jar rest for a minimum of 24 hours before moving to the next step.

8. Separating the layers

After 24 hours you will see two distinct layers in your jar like before only this time, the Bottom layer is all the harmala crystals that precipitate out of the top layer of base water. Next, using your glass pipette, you will need to siphon off that top layer of base water leaving your crystals at the bottom of the jar.

Using your pipette, begin to slowly siphon off the top layer of base water and discard. Be careful not to disturb your bottom layer of crystals. Keep siphoning off the top layer of base water until you can’t get any more. Don’t worry if there is a little water left because you will be washing and cleaning your crystals in the future. Get as much as you can, leaving your harmala crystals behind in your jar.

9. Cleaning the harmala crystals

After you have siphoned all of the base water off your crystals you will need to re-dissolve them. Consider this step a clean-up step that is going to get any remaining solids of seed matter. Take a beaker or coffee cup and add 200ml of distilled water. Then, add 50ml of white vinegar to the water and mix them together.

Next, you want to heat your vinegar water up in the microwave for about 2 minutes. The water doesn’t need to be boiling but you want it hot because it will help re-dissolve your harmala crystals. Once your vinegar water is hot, pour it into your harmala crystals at the bottom of your jar containing your harmala crystals.

Using a glass stirring rod or magnetic stirrer, mix everything for 2 minutes until your harmala crystals re-dissolve. Everything will not dissolve. What does not dissolve is trash. It’s plant matter, other oils, and little stuff that made it past your filtration process.

10. The second filtration

Set up another mason jar with a coffee filter. Pour your harmala water through the filter again for a second filtration. This time should go a bit faster since you filtered out most of the plant matter in the first filter step. After all your harmala water makes it through the filter, throw out whatever your coffee filter catches.

11. The second Basification

After you have all the filtered harmala water you need to basify it a second time to precipitate the crystals out of the water for the final time. Once again, measure out 50ml of water in a beaker then measure out 4 grams of sodium carbonate and add it to the 50ml of water and mix using your glass stir rod or magnetic stirrer until fully dissolved. Once all the carbonate is dissolved, add the base solution to your jar of harmala water. You will see an instant reaction and the water will turn a cream color as the harmala crystals precipitate out of the water.

Cover the jar with a lid or bag and allow the crystals to form for another 24 hours. You can repeat steps 6 through 11 as many times as you would like. It should be done a minimum of two times though for a clean end product. I personally do it three times and don’t see the need to do it any more than that. Three times will leave you with a high-quality end product that is very clean.

12. Recovering your Harmala crystals

After 24 hours you will see two layers in the jar. The top layer is trash, and the bottom is your harmala crystals. You will notice that this time your harmala crystals look a lot lighter and cleaner than the first time. Use your pipette and siphon off as much of the top layer of water as you can without disturbing your harmala crystals at the bottom. Discard the siphoned water.

Set up another mason jar with a coffee filter. Pour the crystals into the filler and this time all of your harmala crystals will remain in the filter. Whatever liquid passes through the filter is trash. You will notice that your crystals will want to stick in the jar. To get them out simply pour a little bit of distilled water in the jar and swirl it around to free them up, then pour them into the filter. Do this until you have collected them all the harmala’s from the jar.

14. Drying your harmala crystals

After collecting your harmala crystals, they need to dry before use. Set the filter on a flat surface and allow it to naturally air dry in a place where it will not be disturbed for 24 to 48 hours. Some people place them in the oven at a very low temperature for a few minutes to dry it out faster, but I prefer to let them naturally dry in the filter.

After they are fully dry keep them in an airtight, tinted container to protect them from long-term Air exposure and sunlight. I personally use these bottles to store them until use.

Conclusion

If you made it this far, congratulations on successfully extracting a very potent and pure MAOI at home for use in your psychedelic exploration. This Syrian rue extract can now be used to create your own Ayahuasca analogs or “Pharmahuasca” at home.

If you need a step-by-step guide on creating your own Pharmahuasca, check out my guide “Pharmahuasca: How To Make Orally Active DMT”. Like this guide, it will walk you through each step of creating a very enjoyable Pharmahuasca at home. I hope you enjoyed this guide and I look forward to continuing to help you gain insight on the many entheogens left for us by nature herself.

MAOI safety information

Exploring Monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOIs) as a treatment option necessitates comprehensive research and guidance from a certified healthcare professional before usage. MAOIs, a powerful category of medications, are known to have potential complications when combined with specific foods, drinks, or other drugs. The interplay between MAOIs and certain substances, due to their effect on neurotransmitters, can lead to unexpected and adverse consequences. Consequently, it’s quintessential to familiarize oneself with potential incompatibilities, side effects, and dietary limitations linked with MAOIs.

For your protection, always adhere to medical instructions, scrutinize medication labels meticulously, and never hesitate to consult a healthcare worker before administering an MAOI, especially if you’re uncertain about what to avoid.

If you’ve been prescribed a monoamine oxidase inhibitor (MAOI), it’s crucial to ensure precautions are taken to prevent detrimental interactions. Here are some key directives:

Medications Considerations

Avoidance of other medications is advised, particularly certain antidepressants, weight-loss drugs, cold or allergy medication, and illicit substances. If you’re currently medicating and planning to introduce an MAOI, a consultation with your healthcare provider is essential.

Tyramine-Rich Foods

Tyramine-fortified foods may trigger a sudden spike in blood pressure when consumed with MAOIs. Food items to be wary of are aged cheeses, cured or processed meats, fermented foods, sauerkraut, soy products, and certain alcoholic drinks like beer and red wine. This is why when people drink standard Ayahuasca, the shamans usually place them on a special diet.

Beverage Consumption

It’s important to moderate the consumption of caffeine-rich drinks such as coffee or energy drinks to avoid adverse reactions to MAOIs. Give yourself a 48-hour cleansing period.

Alcohol

Alcohol consumption should be completely avoided while on MAOIs due to its potential to amplify sedative effects and negatively interact with the MAOI.
Exercise caution when using over-the-counter medications like decongestants or cough medicines. These might contain ingredients that can interact unfavorably with MAOIs. Always review product labels or seek advice from a healthcare professional.