entheogenic-gnosis said:
Believe it or not there is a wealth of scientific data regarding dimethyltryptamine and other obscure tryptamine/beta-Carboline compounds, so I figured that at least some information of this type should exist for harmala alkaloids
I'm well aware of all of those studies...we actually chatted with Dr. Riba about some of the potential things his metabolism study didn't take into account at the ayahuasca conference in Ibiza.
That said, the studies you've linked are somewhat of a false-equivalency...
The Beaton & Barker paper deals with rats, DMT, and I assume more standardized RoA than smoking (I don't have time to pull the paper at the moment and the abstract doesn't appear to say).
Since you posted Strassman's study, certainly you are aware of the difficulty he had in getting it approved? While it took place "early on" in the recent psychedelic resurgence, you could argue that played a role in the difficulty of approval, but even then, it was with an IV RoA and dealt with DMT. From a sanctioned psychedelic research perspective, I would posit DMT carries significantly more weight/interest than harmalas. I'm not saying I agree with that, just that based on the comparative bodies of research, that seems to be the case.
The Riba study took place in Spain and was therefore subjected to less (or at least, different) regulations than those imposed on US researchers. Additionally, it dealt with DMT and there were some questions about the findings, such as the presence of DMT n-oxide (and whether its presence was evidence of it being a metabolite of dmt or a result of the vaporization/smoking method) and the purity of the DMT used (84.6%...which seems pretty poor, based on burnt's jungle spice analytical work and other analysis).
And the biosynthesis paper has very little to do with the topic at hand, afaik.
It also seems worthwhile to point to the John Hopkins research into smoked Salvinorin. The amount of effort required to get approval for those studies was astronomical. And this research was motivated in large part by the widespread recreational use of salvia (the same could be said for Riba et. al.'s paper). Again, research into the effects of smoking relatively uncommon compounds is incredibly difficult to get approved and with smoked/vaped harmalas, there's simply not the same level of widespread use or interest, afaik.
In response to some of the types of papers you've posted, we could link to all sorts of metabolic studies on harmalas and other beta-carbolines, their effects on microbes in cows' guts, and a whole host of other "esoteric" knowledge, but even though those studies deal with the compounds in question, they don't bring anything meaningful to the discussion at hand.
I hope I haven't offended you, that certainly wasn't my intent. Your initial question was
entheogenic-gnosis said:
Does anyone know of any research papers or studies that show that harmine/harmaline/others are active by smoking?
For me, the response to this is still the question of what would you be looking for from such studies? Ostensibly, you would want them to show you that harmalas are active when smoked, no?
You said you have smoked harmalas in changa. Perhaps try them alone? We know they are active when smoked (you now also say you are aware of this in your last post). So, this leaves me somewhat confused. Why would you need research papers to show you that something you have experienced is possible?
Do you see the root of my confusion? Is there something more specific you are looking for? If so, please let us know and I'm sure someone will have something to say
