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My brugmansias are also attacked from time to time.

Usually plants that receive a lot of fertilizer are more attacked more often.

Look at the downside of the leaves for some very small ( usually green ) insects.
Some other insects use to attack at the very night!

You can fight against both with the manual way which is more ecologic!

One harmala alkaloid (MAOI) containing plant is Perganum harmala (Syrian rue).
All sources report that it has a quite high concentration of these alkaloids.

As far as I have searched (books, web, forums) it is a quite difficult plant to grow.
It is naturally growing in Syria, Turkey and this region in general.

I decided to give a try in growing the plant since I live in a region suitable in growing this plant (Mediterranean).

I obtained seeds from two sources. One Turk selling herbs from his country and one online ethno botanical vendor. What I obtained from the Turk indeed was some whole fruits containing seeds.

I tried to germinate seeds from both sources with a great variety of methods, to be more precise : soaking in water, moist paper and moist ground. In every case I had a zero germination rate after about one month of waiting. Actually I didn’t notice the slightest reaction from the seeds.

I suspect that they either collect them while immature , probably this is the case of the first seeds because they were still in the fruit and they were quite smaller or that they process them in a way that makes them non viable ( maybe putting in the oven).

I would like to hear other experiences or opinion on the topic of growing P.harmala.