Timeline for MAO A-binding w. harmine and harmaline

[YBC]

Hi,
Wanted to post this in the harmala section, but because of my non-existent post count I wasn't able to. My question is; does anyone know for how long harmine and harmaline binds to the monoamine oxidase A enzyme following oral ingestion in humans? I know I have seen the numbers somewhere, but I've spent the past few days trying to find that piece of info to no avail. Of even more importance to me would be to find out the time frame of harmala induced MAO-A inhibition when inhaled, but I doubt there is any research on that.

This is really important to me as I am working on a medical protocol for my son's condition. I've been quite successful so far, both in improving the health of my son, as well as attracting the interest of the medical community; based on my grass root research there will now be an in vivo, placebo controlled study on kava's effects on autism performed by a very well renomed research group. I am now focusing on harmalas, but I need to know more about it's pharmacokinetics in regards to it's binding time to the MAO-A enzyme.

Thank you in advance, it would be fantastic if anyone could point me in the right direction.

Edit: a four hour duration in regards to clinically significant harmine mao-binding in the gut is the closest estimate I've found so far. Probably slightly longer for harmaline. I really wonder what the duration mao-a inhibition in the CNS is following inhaled harmalas, any takes on that?

 

[Chan]

Welcome, YBC.

Very interesting post. I don't have the information you require, but do you have the paper linked to in this post?

It doesn't contain it either, but does contain lots of cross-references to other harmala-related papers, and might lead to what you need.

I've been reading some interesting stuff about autism recently, in "Brain Maker" by Dr David Perlmutter, all about the effects of the gut-microbiome on brain-function. Among other things, harmalas are known to have balancing effects on the micro-biome...

 

[YBC]

Thank you Chan,
Yes harmalas has a whole host of incredibly interesting promises for the treatment of autism; it's anti-epileptic effects (tightly intertwined with autism), the lowering of inflammatory cytokines such as IL-6 and TNF-a, the Dyrka1a-inhibition, the EAAT2-activation, it's ability to raise SOD and glutathione, the neuroprotective effects, among lots of other things. The MAOA-inhibiting effecs of harmalas is quite contradictory in both the observed effects in in vivo observations and it's presumed involvement in theories of it's implications in autism. Thanks for the paper, I've read it already though. I have to run now, but thank you again for your response!

 

[YBC]

The best piece of info I've found so far is assembled by Keeper of the trout:

Metabolism may vary widely between different species. Half-life in rats is 6 hours.
Harmine (and its metabolites) show a 3 hour half-life in humans (however, the half-life of harmine in humans given ayahuasca orally was reported to be less than two hours according to McKenna et al. 1998 Maximum plasma levels were reached 102 minutes after ingestion.)
Harmine will noticeably interact with free base tryptamines or orally activate tryptamines for only up to around 4 hours after its ingestion. This refers to harmine pre-administered rather than concurrently taken.
Harmaline and tetrahydroharmine are likely to have a slightly longer duration and be handled and processed differently, if observations from other species can be considered an indicator.
Detailed human pharmacological data is apparently only now beginning to be generated.

Erowid Online Books : "Ayahuasca: alkaloids, plants, and analogs" by Keeper of the Trout