Synthesis of ephedrine from propiophenone

[G.Patton]

I'll make a topic about extracting ephedrine from plants soon

 

[gmo]

Hey G.patton,Can I use iodine as a halogen substitute for this reaction? And And HBr/hydrogen peroxide can be used instead of bromine?

 

[G.Patton]

Yes
I think yes

 

[Sonnettales]

Sorry if this is a repeated message. What is a reverse refrigerator in this procedure? I’ve never heard of this

 

[plancklong]

I believe that something got lost in translation! Try replacing the words "reverse refrigerator" with "pressure-equalizing addition funnel", and see what you think then ! There are a few other places in there I'm still working on!

 

[Sonnettales]

I see! Thank you!

 

[HIGGS BOSSON]

There are inaccuracies in this method.
We are preparing a video on this topic, expect it soon.

 

[None]

Hello, was the video made?

 

[lalalander]

But how profitable is it to produce ephedrine with this method? Can we completely rely on this method for production?

 

[Mr.blank00]

hello, everyone. Can someone provide a link for making ephedrine, pseudoephedrine from d-l alananine, metylananine, yesterday someone posted it but I can't find it, please help.

 

[ilovelamp]

Uncle Fester has a chapter titled "Cooking Your Own Ephedrine" in his The Secrets of Methamphetamine Manufacture 8th ed. I have been curious about this method for some time now. This could revolutionize clandestine chemistry if its as easy as it sounds. I cant wait to see a step by step video.

 

[SoldadoDeDrogas]

After exhausting my resources trying to obtain pseudo pills, I stumbled across this exact method looking through Festers book and became very hopeful once again. From what I understand, it is more or less an equivalent process to brewing your own booze from scratch. Boiling water, adding sugar (or molasses) and yeast - the secret ingredient this time is Benzaldehyde, which is in bitter almond oil in somewhat high concentrations, (depending on brand) from what I understand. More or less %90 pure? You can find this at the grocery store, etc. in the spice/flavoring section. A little bottle of almond oil will literally say "contains: benzaldehyde". I don't know if the almond oil needs to be refined before being added to the 'yeast mash', granted its purity - I don't see the impurities being able to potentially interfere with the fermenting process. Does anybody know? Has anyone fermented Benzaldehyde and gotten to ephedra by these means? Please let me know.

As soon as I figure it out, if anything, I will share the good news. o7

 

[Osmosis Vanderwaal]

I don't think BAE is 90% benzaldehyde. I think it's 90% ethanol. It would definitely need distilling and you would lose your ass on the price. There's cheaper stuff to get benzaldehyde from. I'm sure butter almond extract could not substitute for benzaldehyde without purification and concentration. I researched it deeply and decided it wasn't a good choice for me. A 55gallon drum can produce 20g of L-pac every 4 days. There's a lot of work to getting that 20g out of 50+ gallons of sludge.

 

[SoldadoDeDrogas]

I mean, lemme take a better look, I'm more or less going off Fester's SOMM#8. You are probably correct, if it did ever work, it was probably 20 years ago, after some processing. He makes it sound like it's the answer to all our prayers if ephedra is off limits and there aren't other options. I ought to apply the same skepticism towards some of these things - such as being able to do something in a pinch with the Levo from the inhalers. I should know better by now, that if it was that easy, more if not all would be doing it, and it would be HOT to boot. I am learning quite a bit though putting in the footwork figuring these things out.. the hard way.

 

[Osmosis Vanderwaal]

It works it's been done and done and done. The whole " extracting 20 grams of L-pac from 50 gallons of liquid" Ive seen massive clandestine centrifuges, instead of 15 ml centrifuge tubes, 5 gallon buckets with lids. Or a continuous process slinger. You can buy the for $10s of thousands of dollars, so now you are contemplating a 3 phase 2hp motor, a welded carousel, and at least a basement or garage. You can't just precipitate 50 gallons of solvent because the base is going to cost so much at that amount. Google scholar will show you 100's of write ups on it. I think I could make phenyl acetate cheaper. Once I read a reaction on Science madness. The guy needed anhydrous ethanol. He broke ethyl acetate to get it and I thought that was insane when you could distill it yourself, but you know, he had anhydrous ethanol in less than 1 hour and ethyl acetate is $25/liter so if you only need 150ml. It. Looks. A. Lot. More attractive

 

[SoldadoDeDrogas]

There is a NileRed video on YT in which he obtains a relatively pure sample of 'essential oil of almond' or something from ebay and says it is pure enough to be used -as is- in reactions, but goes on to purify it anyway. Fester says to run a vacuum for a few minutes to remove the HCN. It is mentioned BAE/benzaldehyde is controlled substance in USA which is funny because I literally grabbed a small bottle of BAE at the market yesterday listing as the only ingredient: benzaldehyde. I realize that this does sound better on paper.

I'm sorry, my friend, Frit, I'm not able to make much sense of what you are saying. What you've seen and decided was or wasn't practical for you or whomever else isn't necessarily going to be true for everyone. I'm trying to set up production, brother, if you know what I mean, and what's stopping me, as of now, is lack of a certain ingredient. For now I've got Ma Huang as a last resort , but I'm not even trying to go that route if I don't have to. My main priority at the moment, and going forward, is not draw any attention or leave a trail whatsoever.

If one wanted to step up production, Fester says, this is a viable alternative from buying pills or extracting plants. If one wanted to start a 5Gal bucket or two for fermenting benzaldhyde, contiuously, none of the equipment you speak of is necessary, and the cost of molasses/sugar/yeast/BAE isn't relevant to me. Though a distillation/reflux apparatus, etc. would be nice and helpful, I'm not there yet.

Extracting the L-PAC is relatively simple, (according to this outline in somm). Filter the mash and use a toluene or ether wash to pull it and evap. I'm trying to see this process through to ephedra, and so the next step is to use methylamine for reduction. If that has been done and done, then noone is really talking about it or seems to know much, that I am able to find. Forgive me for seeking elaboration and taking everything with a grain of salt, in spite of all the flexing and street cred. As I said, I am learning a great deal in the process of sorting it all out, in any event. Thank you for your time and input. o7

 

[Consider]

It's norephedrine, I tried it got white powder bitter like ephedrine and reacts like ephedrine but it's norephedrine and cannot be used to produce methamphetamine

 

[Osmosis Vanderwaal]

None of the administration nor anyone else has responded to me pointing out that the pictures of the chemicals at the end represent ephedrine nor ephedrine or pseudoephedrine. I am also intrigued at what mechanism turned this a chiral molecule into some other with specific stereo arrangement of 2 chiral carbons. Usually that takes a chiral reactant or produces a racemic product. Please, I must know this witchcraft

 

[Osmosis Vanderwaal]

Here's what I come up with, constituents of butter almond extract, Water, Alcohol (36%) and oil of bitter almonds.
State and federal law say that almond extract must contain at least 1% bitter almond oil. So water, more than 36% since it is listed first, 36% ethanol, that's at least 73% of it