The Persian word اسپند is also the name of the last month of the year, approximately March, in the traditional Persian calendar. It is known in as اسپند in Persian, which is transliterated as espand, or ispand but may also be pronounced or transliterated as sepand, sipand, sifand, esfand, isfand, aspand, or esphand depending on source or dialect. Harmel is used in India, Algeria, and Morocco. Etymology Īfrican rue is often used in North American English. The alkaloids contained in the plant, including the seeds, are monoamine oxidase inhibitors ( Harmine, Harmaline). The plant is popular in Middle Eastern and north African folk medicine. It has become an invasive species in some regions of the western United States.
Because eating it would sicken or kill livestock, it is considered a noxious weed in a number of countries. Its common English-language name came about because of a resemblance to rue (to which it is not related). Peganum harmala, commonly called wild rue, Syrian rue, African rue, esfand or espand, or harmel, (among other similar pronunciations and spellings) is a perennial, herbaceous plant, with a woody underground rootstock, of the family Nitrariaceae, usually growing in saline soils in temperate desert and Mediterranean regions.
