Independent evolution of harmala alkaloids in medicinal Syrian rue and ayahuasca plants

Preprint, not peer reviewed. Muro-Villanueva F, Ham YW, Williams J et al.. bioRxiv, 27 Oct 2026.

Tags: Preprint, Ayahuasca.

Weekly Science Digest, 23 Oct 2026 to 29 Oct 2026, finding 7: On the preprint servers

Reports that Syrian rue and the ayahuasca vine evolved harmala alkaloid biosynthesis independently after 100M years of divergence

How much weight it carries: Not peer reviewed. Early results that may not hold up. (Preprint)