common names: Syrian rue, african rue
habit: perennial, succulent herb, up to 0.5m high, 1 to 1.5 m across.
foliage: Succulent and finely branched leaves, irregularly 3 to 5 segments, bright green, 2.5-5 cm long. Stems zig-zagging and woody, many branches.
flowers: 5 white petals, borne singly along stem in the leaf forks, 2.5-3 cm across.
fruit: 3 celled capsule, 10-15 mm spherical, turning from green to brown/ orange when ripe, opening at the top in 3 valves, each cell having many seeds.
seeds: angular, dark brown with distinctive smell. 3-4 mm x 2 mm each.
distribution: Native to arid parts of Nth Africa and Mediterranian, the Middle East and across to Pakistan and India. Introduced and naturalised in parts of the SW USA, and a few areas of SA and NSW in Australia.
notes: Widely known and used herb in it’s native area, seeds yield a dye ‘turkish red’ or ‘syrian red’ long used in ‘persian’ carpets. Seeds and roots contain b-carboline alkaloids, mostly harmine, as well as harmaline, harmalol, harman, peganine, isopeganine, dipegene, vasicinone and deoxyvasicinone. Egyptian studies found that extract is markedly fungicidal and bactericidal, due to harmine mostly. Reported to be used as an inscence and spice, and to used as abortificant, narcotic, aphrodisiac, stimulant, sedative, emmanagogue, emetic, vermifuge, soporific. Reported to be used in India for syphilis, fever in Nth Africa, and for fever, hysteria, malaria, neuralgia, parkinsonism, prolapse of the womb, rheumatism, colic, asthma, eye complaints. B-carboline alkaloids stimulate the brain and may induce visual hallucinations, same or very similar alkaloids to the ‘Ayahuasca’ vine (Banisteropsis Caapi) from the Amazon.