Maybe you’re reading this article because you have a major mental illness like psychosis, severe depression / major depressive disorder / MDD, incapacitating anxiety, or bipolar disorder. Or maybe you’re reading this article because a loved one has recently been diagnosed with a form of dementia like Alzheimer’s disease. Or perhaps you have a child with a learning disorder who has difficulty remembering facts in school. All of these situations are relevant for consideration and, in fact, they are all related health situations in regard to memory improvement. It’s quite a mixed bag of different issues that can benefit from memory improvement, but stay with me and I’ll explain how depression, dementia, and learning disability are related.
We’ve talked elsewhere about memory loss in terms of trauma and how traumatic, unconscious memories can manifest as symptoms, but in this article we’re going to talk about how to restore memory using the sacred medicines like Ayahuasca or Peganum harmala among other things. I stumbled across the information about Ayahuasca as a medicine to heal the memory when I was doing research for a client who had been trafficked and who suspected that he had been given scopolamine to make him compliant. This client who knew that he had been trafficked and was aware of having been “sold” to a trafficking ring wanted his memories back because he was tired of suffering from anxiety, depression, and relationship issues as a result of his “lost” memories.
Memory loss and memory problems are often a part of the symptom picture in those with Long COVID, autoimmune disease, cancer, diabetes, major depression / MDD, generalized anxiety, panic disorder, and bipolar disorder and more. There are a variety of different types of dementia. Alzheimer’s is the most famous type of dementia, but Parkinson’s disease and Lewy Body dementia are also relevant in this discussion about memory restoration and memory protection. A lot of people with autoimmune disorders suffer with an incapacitating brain fog that seems impossible to overcome. But what if you have unconscious memories that are just under the surface of your conscious awareness, that are causing symptoms of mental illness, dementia, autoimmune disease, or even cancer and diabetes? If you struggle with treatment-resistant depression or anxiety and your psychiatrist isn’t able to treat your symptoms, it might be time to “pop the hood” and look more deeply into the unconscious as the potential underlying cause. Going to the root cause can sometimes lead to a permanent cure.
What I found when I did research into how to retrieve memories that have been lost as a result of scopolamine drugging was a fairly rich body of research showing not only that scopolamine is used to mimic the effects of Alzheimer’s in scientific labs, but also that Ayahuasca can reverse the effects of scopolamine, and presumably also Alzheimer’s disease. Ayahuasca contains harmine and harmline, two harmala alkaloids that have a big, healing impact on memory centers and the cholinergic nervous system. Through the action of harmine and harmaline, Ayahuasca is an acetylcholinesterase enzyme inhibitor, an antioxidant, and an anti-inflammatory medicine. Harmine and harmaline have different biological availability but both help people retrieve their memories and their memory-producing abilities.
Repair Memory Deficits
Ayahuasca contains both harmine and harmaline, two substances that can repair memory deficits caused by drugs like scopolamine or alcohol. In animal models of memory loss, doses of harmaline between 2-10 mg/kg or of harmine 10-30 mg/kg for 7 days was enough to overcome memory loss due to scopolamine exposure. The harmine and harmaline improve cholinergic function by acting as acetylcholinesterase inhibitors and by inducing choline acetyltransferase activity. Ayahuasca essentially heals the cholinergic nervous system such that this somatic part of the nervous system can communicate better with the logical, left-hemisphere of the brain. In other words, through the healing of the cholinergic system, material that has been stored as a “body memory” can be retrieved by the logical part of our brain, the left-hemisphere, to produce narrative memory that we can put into words.
As such, Ayahuasca has the following medicinal activity that helps to reduce memory loss due to drugs or alcohol exposure, degenerative disorders, autoimmunity, and trauma that is sometimes the root cause of learning disorders:
- Acetylcholinesterase inhibitor
- Choline acetyltransferase inducer
- Antioxidant activity of superoxide dismutase
- Antioxidant activity of glutathione peroxidase
- Maleic diadehyde production reduction
- Anti-inflammatory effects that occur through suppression of myeloperoxidase, tumor, necrosis factor alpha, and nitric oxide
- Modulation of neurotransmitters such as:
- Acetylcholine
- Choline
- L-tryptophan
- Serotonin
- GABA
- L-glutamic acid
Ayahuasca for Children
Giving Ayahuasca to children is controversial and the decision to give your child Ayahuasca should be done with care. But in some situations, Ayahuasca can be life-saving for a child, so it’s vital to consider all of the angles. Ayahuasca can be an important healing medicine for diabetes in children as well as for childhood cancer and other serious diseases. Parents who are unwilling to give their child a full dose of Ayahuasca might instead considering Ayahuasca microdosing for children.
Harmine vs. Harmaline to Overcome Amnesia Naturally
Harmaline has a more striking effect on cholinergic function, inflammation, and neurotransmitter regulation than harmine, but both of these substances are important. Only a very low dose of harmaline (2 mg/kg) is necessary to produce striking effects in terms of memory improvement. In contrast, harmine must be administered at a dose of 20 mg/kg to produce noticeable anti-amnesia effects.
Banisteriopsis caapi, one of the ingredients in Ayahuasca, is made up of between 0.3 – 8.43% harmine and 0.03 – 0.83% harmaline. A different herbal ingredient that is used in Ayahuasca formulations in some parts of the word, Peganum harmala, contains about 1.5% harmaline and less than 1.5% harmine, in contrast. Peganum harmala is a good herb to work with for microdosing because it is cheap, legal, and fairly easy to obtain in most countries of the world.
Peganum harmala: Herbal Remedy for Forgetfulness
Peganum harmala, also known as Syrian rue, is a medicine that is used in Uyghur traditional medicine in China to treat forgetfulness, amnesia, dementia (including Alzheimer’s), and even hemiplegia. It is also used as an ingredient in Ayahuasca in some parts of the world. In Uyghur medicine, the aerial parts of the Peganum harmala plant are used as opposed to the seeds. In these ethnic groups, Peganum harmala leaves and stems are also used to treat cough and asthma. As an herbal remedy for Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia, Peganum harmala functions as an antidepressant, anti-inflammatory, and antioxidant.
Studies have examined the effects of harmine in Peganum harmala for its ability to reduce memory impairment caused by alcohol consumption. This herb is thought by some to reduce forgetfulness or amnesia caused by over-consumption of alcohol because of its ability to downregulate inflammatory factors caused by alcohol and by also upregulating brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF). Other research has shown that Peganum harmala alkaloids (harmine and harmaline) work to retrieve memories by healing the cholinergic nervous system.
In those with Alzheimer’s, the harmine in Peganum harmala protects neurons and increases the expression of myelin basic protein to protect the myelin sheath (which is relevant in terms of the natural healing of Multiple Sclerosis). Harmine also promotes synaptic vesicle fusion and it modulates neurotransmitter levels.
Peganum harmala offers an array of medicinal benefits in addition to its use as a natural treatment for dementia and an herbal remedy for memory loss. These medicinal benefits include:
- Antibacterial
- Antiviral
- Antifungal
- Anticancer
- Antidepressant / MAOI
- Anti-anxiety
- Neuroprotective / Increases Brain Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF)
- Pain relieving herb for low back pain / lumbago
- Anti-hypertensive / herbal remedy for high blood pressure
- Antiparasitic
- Anti-inflammatory
- Herbal treatment for leukemia
- Herbal treatment for psoriasis
- Memory-enhancing
- Herbal treatment for Alzheimer’s disease
- Herbal treatment for dementia
- Anti-diabetic
- Anti-malarial
- Herbal remedy for jaundice
- Herbal remedy for colic
- Herbal remedy for cough
- Herbal remedy for asthma
Many of the people we work with are trying to retrieve memories that have been “lost” as a result of trauma. I’m not talking about digging for something that isn’t there or that may or may not be there, but rather, memory retrieval around a specific, consciously known event that is “floating” and “disconnected” from the person’s general narrative of their lives because of trauma.
Trauma can create disconnections in a person’s narrative…disjointed stories that don’t exactly make sense. Restoring the narrative is one of the main goals of trauma-informed therapies along with the restoration of one’s ability to move around inside of their memories and see the story from different perspectives
Microdosing Peganum Harmala to Improve Memory, Retrieve Lost Memories, or Treat Dementia Naturally
Microdosing with Peganum harmala to administer harmine and harmaline can produce significant changes in neurological activity according to scientific studies. Microdosing can improve memory while also improving mood. Microdosing can be administered at all ages, but to avoid potentially adverse effects, the patient should not be taking other psychoactive medications (i.e. antidepressants, benzos, street drugs, pain-killers, etc.).
Below are recipes for Syrian rue preparation.
Recipe #1:
Prepare an aqueous extract of Peganum harmala by first freezing the seeds. Freezing the seeds makes them easier to grind. Grind 20 grams of the seeds.
Then put the 20 grams of Peganum harmala seeds (ground as finely as possible) in filtered water with a dash of vinegar and bring it to a boil 3 to 7 separate times (3-7 “washes”). On each wash, filter out the seeds for reuse on the next wash and pour the water into a separate bowl for collection. Put the seeds back in the pot with more fresh water and a dash of vinegar each time.
Bring the total liquid volume of liquid up to 200 mL to create a concentration of about 1 gram / 10 mL.
This concentration (1 g/10 mL) provides a dose of 0.5/5 mL which is about 1/10th of the MAOI dose and 1/28th of the average dose needed to produce a psychoactive effect. If you wish, you can double the number of grams in this recipe to double the dose.
Store the final product in the refrigerator and mix well before each use.
Recipe #2:
Another option for Peganum harmala administration is to grind the seeds and then put them in vegetable glycerin capsules at a dose of 0.25 (1/20th of a full dose) to 0.5 grams (1/10th of a full dose) per capsule. Take one capsule daily in the morning.
Resources:
Li, S. P. et al. (2018). Analogous beta-Carboline Alkaloids Harmaline and Harmine Ameliorate Scopolamine-Induced Cognition Dysfunction by Attenuating Acetylcholinesterase Activity, Oxidative Stress, and Inflammation in Mice. Retrieved November 14, 2025 from https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5932362/
Xie, Z. et al. (2024). Effects and mechanisms of harmine on ameliorating ethanol-induced memory impairment. Retrieved November 16, 2025 from https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39241971/
Liu, W. et al. (2017). Anti-amnesic effect of extract and alkaloid fraction from aerial parts of Peganum harmala on scopolamine-induced memory deficits in mice. Retrieved November 16, 2025 from https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28442406/
Doty, M. (2018). Microdosing Peganum harmala. Retrieved November 16, 2025 from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/322234580_Microdosing_Peganum_harmala