Peganum Harmala

PEGANUM HARMALA L., harmal, grave weed, wild rue (adraspan among the Kirghiz) is a perennial herbaceous plant of the family Zygophyllaceae with alternate trifid leaves; their lobes are entire or twice-toothed to thrice-divided; flowers are large, petals mostly 5, white in color, sepals 4-5, ovary is spherical and three-celled, fruit is a capsule. Harmal is very widespread: it grows in the steppe part of the Crimea, in the steppes of the southern Ukraine, reaching Dnepropetrovsk and Melitopol; in Transcaucasia, in the southern part of Kazakhstan and the Central Asian republics; in Egypt, Asia Minor, Syria, Persia, Afghanistan. It enjoys fame as a folk remedy, especially in Central Asia and Persia, where the seeds are used "for a thousand diseases"; it is used as a diuretic, anthelmintic, soporific, diaphoretic, and against rheumatism. In Bukhara, the mentally deranged (epileptics) are fumigated with smoke from the seeds, and the seeds are also put into tobacco; in the south of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, the root decoction is widely used; in the East, a red dye (for fez hats) is extracted from the seeds, the composition of which includes the pigment harmalol (aromatic alcohol, C₁₂H₁₀N₂O). The seeds and roots of harmal contain on average 4% of a mixture of the alkaloids harmine (C₁₃H₁₂N₂O) and the closely related harmaline (C₁₃H₁₄N₂O). Harmine was discovered in 1848 by the Russian scientist Fritzsche; according to some authors (Penzoldt, Tappeiner, and others), it is a convulsive poison, while according to others it acts on the motor system (Lewin), causing excitation of the motor cells of the cerebral cortex (Nagel). The excitatory effect of harmine on the central nervous system and its property of lowering body temperature have been established experimentally; in frogs, it increases reflex excitability. In the assessment of the clinical significance of harmine, there is still no unanimity to this time. However, some authors point to a good result from the use of harmine in post-encephalitic parkinsonism and in paralysis agitans. Harmine is administered subcutaneously. Combination with scopolamine enhances the effect of harmine. Harmaline is similar in action to harmine and can easily be converted into harmine. Harmine proved to be identical to the alkaloid banisterine, obtained from the wood of the tropical liana Banisteria caapi (South America). The commercial preparation "Harmin Merck" represents the hydrochloride salt of the alkaloid in solution in ampoules of 0.02 (1 cm³) and 0.04 (2 cm³) and in capsules of 0.02. Harmine is prepared in the USSR by the Chemical-Pharmaceutical Association. Favorable results in the treatment of parkinsonism with harmine encourage further study of this alkaloid.