Health Benefits of Harmal (Peganum)

The Harmal (Peganum) is a perennial, woody strain, 40 cm high. The alternating green-glaucous leaves are divided into narrow strips. They emit an unpleasant odor when creased. The 2 cm flowers have 5 yellowish- white petals, 10 to 15 stamens with broadened threads at the base. The 5 narrow sepals are persistent. They surround a spherical capsule with 3 boxes containing many angular black seeds.

harmal (Peganum) therapeutic and medicinal properties:

The harmal (Peganum) is a medicinal plant being provided with great toxicity, yet it knows therapeutic properties vermifuge and emmenagogues, abortive and hypnotic, antalgic and antitussive as well as antiseptic.

Highly appreciated for its cutaneous use in rheumatism since it quickly relieves pain, it helps with healing in burns and dermatoses, and to treat mumps.

Seeds are extracted from an oil that can cure disorders of hypertension and diabetes, anuria (decrease in urinary volume) and dysuria (difficulty urinating).
It can be used to treat colds and dental caries, it is the same against conjunctivitis and in the treatment of eczema.

Main constituents:

It is the seeds and roots of the harmal (Peganum) (armel) that contain the active compounds, they contain indole alkaloids with harmane and harmine, harmol and harmaline, amino acids and flavonoids, coumarines and tannins as well as sterols.

harmal (Peganum) use traditional virtues:

Traces are found in some first century writings concerning the harmal (Peganum) with Dioscorides (doctor, pharmacologist and Greek botanist) who used it to treat melancholy and for its emetic virtues.
It is in the traditional Algerian and North African medicine that we find the use of the harmal (Peganum), it was used as stimulant of the central nervous system, to cure the gynecological problems.

It was valuable for this pharmacopoeia to treat digestive disorders such as colic and to stop skin disorders with eczema, dermatoses and burns as well as purulent conjunctivitis.It was beneficial in high blood pressure and hemorrhoids and to recover from poisoning with snake venom. The seeds mixed with honey served to rub the painful areas due to rheumatism and joint pains.

Research :

Research and studies have been carried out to control bovine theilerosis, a disease that causes fever in

these animals and affects mainly cattle in North Africa.

Origin:
The harmal (Peganum) also called wild street, is a herbaceous and perennial plant with big woody roots it reaches the height of fifty centimeters and is part of the zygophyllaceae family. It is bushy with a very divided and glabrous foliage and leaves linear and cut, alternating of a glaucous green, it is said that it gives off a nauseating odor when crumpled. Its inflorescence is white to yellow and visible from May to July with flowers composed of five petals and which give way to fruit sort of spherical capsule containing several angular and black seeds.

He is from the Middle East, with North Africa and Southern Europe, then he has spread to Australia and West  Asia, he prefers uncultivated land and soils sandy.

harmal (Peganum): precautions side effects, contraindications:

The harmal (Peganum) is considered to be a toxic plant and can only be used under medical supervision and with the utmost caution, these effects can be very dangerous for the body. It can lead to digestive disorders, heart problems and neurological see paralysis.

harmal (Peganum) use for, and the health benefits:

Dewormers, emmenagogues, abortive, hypnotic, analgesics, antitussives, antiseptics, rheumatism, scarring, burns, dermatoses, mumps, hypertension, diabetes, anuria, dysuria, colds, caries, conjunctivitis, eczema.

Harmal (Peganum): Dosage, dosage

No official information to date, if you have a dosage indication that you use or know, leave it down in the comments.

Distribution of poisoning:

harmal (Peganum) intoxications are responsible for 4; 6% of all plant poisoning in Morocco
Peganum harmala L. (from harmal (Peganum)) is one of the most used plants in traditional medicine for its sedative and emmenagogue qualities. Its use for therapeutic purposes exposes the risk of overdose and intoxication.
In Morocco, the harmal (Peganum) is used to treat various gynecological disorders such as female infertility, but also sexual impotence. Some women use it as an instrument. It is used as a sedative, sleeping pill (infants or insomniac children, especially in the Marrakech region). It is a hypnotic, antipyretic, analgesic, antitussive, antidiarrheal in infants. Antiseptic and healing, it is used to treat certain skin problems, dermatoses (eczema) and burns, purulent conjunctivitis and blepharitis and alopecia. Some recognize him anti-infectious virtues, against the neonatal tetanus, anthelmintic (roundworm, tænia), anti-malaria and antiorroids. Finally, it should be pointed out that fumigation with the harmal (Peganum) is a common practice, either for therapeutic purposes or for magic prophylaxis.

According to Dr. Nadia Tahri, of the Poison Control Center of Morocco, harmal (Peganum) intoxication can be deadly.

Testimonial:
the CAPM recently received, via its emergency number (081 000 180), the call of a resuscitator who had just received a patient aged 18, comatose, presenting a state of shock, convulsions, a anuria and uterine hemorrhage secondary to an abortion. Her family reports that she found him unconscious, with harmal (Peganum) seeds scattered beside her.

Botanical description:

The harmal (Peganum) is a herbaceous plant, perennial, glabrous, bushy from 30 to 90 cm in height with thick rhizome, with strong odor, unpleasant which remembers that of the street The stems erect, very ramous disappear winter; they bear alternate leaves, cut into narrow strips.The solitary flowers, rather large (25 to 30 mm), of a yellowish-white veined with green are formed of:
five sepals green, linear, persistent that exceed the corolla.

Seeds: 

many, small, angular, subtriangular, dark brown in color, the outer integument is reticulated, have a bitter taste; they are harvested in summer (Chopra et al., 1960, Quezel & Santa, 1963, Ozenda, 1977).
The success of Peganum harmala in arid environments is partly due to the ability of plants to tolerate and recover from water deficiency

Mechanism of action and toxicokinetics

The whole plant is toxic via an alkaloid whose rate is higher in the seed (3 to 4%) than in the root or stem (0.36%) or the leaf (0.52% ). For 3 g of ground seeds the toxicity appears. The alkaloid content increases in summer, during the
ripening of the fruit. Harmaline and harmine are antagonists of serotonin, a neurotransmitter involved in the mode of action of indole hallucinogens. Harmaline and harmine take the place of serotonin in enzymatic mechanisms because of the resemblance of structures.
Hepatic catabolism by sulfo and glucuronide conjugation has been demonstrated in rats and confirmed in the human liver. Absorption depends on the route of exposure: after ingestion of the seeds, the alkaloids are absorbed in a few minutes by the gastrointestinal tract, reaching in 15 to 30 minutes, the target organs (central nervous system and heart). In fumigation these organs are affected in 5 to 10 mm. The main effect is on the central nervous system resulting in a procession of signs
neurological and neuromuscular. The alkaloids of quinazoline are responsible for the abortive activity by a contraction of the uterine muscle.

Various:

It is extracted from the harmal (Peganum) (green street) a pigment of red hue (Turkish red) that is traditionally used to dye the wool in the making of carpets.

In view of the compounds contained in the seeds of this plant, the harmal (Peganum) was classified as an amazing plant since a decree dating from 2005.

It is researched mainly in Morocco on the capabilities of this herbaceous in biological control as a repellent of caterpillar invasions that is called Lymantria dispar (Bombyx disparate) invasive insect in some countries.

This plant also has uses in rituals and sacrificial ceremonies, in fact, it is associated with beverages such as soma which is used in the Hindu religion (Rigveda) and in the haoma drink used in the Zoroastrian religion. In some countries like Morocco and in the Arab world in general, magical powers are attributed to this herbaceous, it removes the jnoun (sort of evil genius), for that women throw the seeds of the harmal (Peganum) in the fire which allows its removal. It is made besides fumigations and conjurations, as well as amulets of protection with the seeds of this plant for many rites.