Determination of Tryptamines and β-Carbolines in Ayahuasca Beverage Consumed During Brazilian Religious Ceremonies

Introduction

Ayahuasca is a traditional hallucinogenic beverage typically prepared as a decoction of Banisteriopsis caapi (providing reversible monoamine oxidase inhibitors: harmine, harmaline, tetrahydroharmine) and Psychotria viridis (leaves containing N,N-dimethyltryptamine, DMT). The reversible MAO inhibitors in B. caapi render orally ingested DMT active. In Brazil, consumption of ayahuasca is permitted in a religious context under specific national regulations, which also highlight the need for multidisciplinary research including chemical characterisation and analytical methods for tryptamines and β-carbolines. Such characterisation is important for monitoring use, informing clinical or forensic investigations, and understanding risks from combinations with other psychoactive substances. Santos and colleagues set out to develop and validate a simple, low-cost analytical method to quantify major alkaloids in ayahuasca—DMT, tryptamine, harmine, harmaline, harmalol, and tetrahydroharmine—using solid-phase extraction (SPE) on silica cartridges coupled with liquid chromatography and UV diode-array detection (LC-UV/DAD). The study applied the method to 20 samples taken throughout a two-stage ayahuasca cooking process from a religious group in Fortaleza, Ceará, Brazil, and included structural characterisation of tetrahydroharmine isolated during the work.