Yes, the reaction takes place, but it is irrelevant, wanna know why? Well, first, harmala red only forms if you use a fan to evaporate the harmala-rich alcohol, if you let it evaporate at its own pace or boil it down, guess what?!?! No harmala red forms at all. Secondly, even if harmala red raises its filmy head, so what?  Continue the extraction as you normally would, it doesnt change anything. Actually, I have gotten better yields of harmalas from the same batch of rue when using my handy computer fan to evaporate the alcohol and create the dreaded harmala red than boiling it down. Everyone seems to be worried about a phenomenon that, ime, has no effect on the overall extraction...

peace

SB