Each year between June and August, P. harmala produces many single white conspicuous flowers. Measurg one to one and one-half inches across, these relatively large and showy blooms have five oblong-elptic petals as well as five narrow sepals of slightly longer length. Each flower has the potentialtodevelop into a fruit--a leathery, three-- valved seed capsule that stands erect on its stalk. Eac casule measures about three-eighths inch in diameter and contains more than fifty dark-brown, angular seeds.

The seeds, as well as the roots, of P. harmala contain a mixture of the harmala alkaloids, armine and harmaline. These unusual alkaloids are psychoactive derivatives of B-carboline, When admnstered to man, the harmala alkaloids are serotonin antagonists, CNS stimulants, hallucinogens and xtemely potent, short term MAO inhibitors. Interestingly enough, neither harmine, harmaline nor P. armla is included in the Federal Controlled Substance Act. Present at 3% by dry weight, the harmalaalkaoids may be extracted from the seeds and roots of . harmala- and purified as crystalline bases.Hasenratz described this process in 1927.

P. harmala, or Syrian Rue, is the plant from which harmine was first isolated, as well as a source of harmaline and tetrahydroharmine. Total beta-Carboline content runs almost 4% by weight in the seeds of Syrian Rue. These alkaloids occur in roughly the same proportions as in B. caapi. Ten grams of Syrian Rue seeds provide about 400mg of total beta-Carbolines, about that amount in a typical dose of ayahuasca.

Syrian Rue grows in semi-arid conditions. It originated in Central Asia, and is held in high esteem throughout Asia Minor as a medicinal, aphrodisiac and dye plant. There is no solid historical evidence of ritual or religious use. It is sometimes known as "ruin weed" since it often grows on the tells covering the ruins of ancient cities in the Near East. It now grows wild in Eurasia and has recently been spread to Texas, Nevada, New Mexico and Southern California.

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