A solution of 4.7 g 3,5-dimethoxy-4-(n)-propoxyphenylacetonitrile in 20 mL THF was treated with 2.4 g powdered sodium borohydride. To this well-stirred suspension there was added, dropwise, 1.5 mL
trifluoroacetic acid. There was a vigorous gas evolution from the exothermic reaction. Stirring was continued for 1 h, then all was poured into 300 mL H2O. This was acidified cautiously with dilute H2SO4, and washed with 2x75 mL CH2Cl2. The aqueous phase was made basic with dilute NaOH, extracted with 2x75 mL CH2Cl2, the extracts pooled, and the solvent removed under vacuum. The residue was distilled at 115-125 !C at 0.3 mm/Hg to give 1.5 mL of a colorless oil which upon dissolving in 5 mL IPA, neutralizing with 27 drops concentrated HCl, and dilution with 25 mL anhydrous Et2O yielded 1.5 g 3,5-dimethoxy-4-(n)-propoxyphenethylamine hydrochloride (P) as spectacular white crystals. The catalytic hydrogenation process for reducing the nitrile (see under E) also succeeded with this material.
The mp was 170-172 !C. Anal. (C13H22ClNO3) C,H,N.
DOSAGE: 30 - 60 mg.
DURATION: 8 - 12 h.
QUALITATIVE COMMENTS: (with 30 mg) Proscaline dulled my sense of pain and made the other senses really sharp. Everything felt really soft, and clean and clear. I could feel every hair my hand was touching. I felt so relaxed and at ease. I know that under the appropriate circumstances, this material would lead to uninhibited eroticism.
(with 35 mg) The whole experiment was very quiet. There was no nystagmus, no anorexia, and insignificant visuals with the eyes closed. I was restless with a bit of tremor for the first couple of hours, and then became drowsy. Would I do this again? Probably not.
It doesnUt seem to offer anything except speculation about the nature of the high. The high was pleasant, but quite uneventful.
(with 40 mg) For me there was a deep feeling of peace and contentment. The euphoria grows in intensity for several hours and remains for the rest of the day making this one of the most enjoyable experiences I have ever had. It was marvel-ous talking and joking with the others. However, I was a little disappointed that there was no enhanced clarity and no deep realizations. There was not a problem to be found. There were no motivations to discuss anything serious.
If I had any objection, it would be with the name, not the pharmacology.
(with 60 mg) The development of the intoxication was complete in a couple of hours. I feel that there is more physical effect than mental, in that there is considerable irritability. This should probably be the maximum dose. Despite feeling quite drunk, my thinking seems straight. The effects were already waning by the fifth hour, but sleep was not possible until after the twelth hour. There was no hangover the next day.
EXTENSIONS AND COMMENTARY: There is a very early report describing the human use of proscaline tucked away in the Czechoslovakian literature that describes experiments at up to 80 milligrams. At these dosages, there were reported some difficulty with dreams, and the residual effects were still apparent even after 12 hours.
The amphetamine homologue of proscaline, 3,5-dimethoxy-4-(n)-propoxy-amphetamine is an unexplored compound.
Its synthesis could not be achieved in parallel to the description given for P. Rather, the propylation of syringaldehyde to give 3,5-dimethoxy-4-(n)-propoxybenzaldehyde, followed by coupling with nitroethane and the reduction of the formed nitrostyrene with lithium aluminum hydride would be the logical process. Following the reasoning given under E, the initials for this base would be 3C-P, and I would guess it would be active, and a psychedelic, in the 20 to 40
milligram range.
141 PE; PHENESCALINE; 3,5-DIMETHOXY-4-PHENETHYLOXYPHENETHYLAMINE
SYNTHESIS: To a solution of 5.8 g homosyringonitrile (see under E for its preparation) in 50 mL of acetone containing 100 mg decyltriethylammonium iodide, there was added 14.8 g '-phenethylbromide and 6.9 g of finely powdered anhydrous K2CO3. The greenish mixture was refluxed for 3 days, with two additional 4 g batches of anhydrous K2CO3 being added at 24 h intervals. After addition to aqueous base, the product was extracted with CH2Cl2, the pooled extracts were washed with dilute base (the organic phase remained a deep purple color) and then finally with dilute HCl (the organic phase became a pale yellow). The solvent was removed giving 15.6 g crude 3,5-dimethoxy-4-phenethyloxyphenylacetonitrile which distilled at 165-185 !C at 0.3 mm/Hg to yield 3,5-dimethoxy-4-phenethyloxyphenylacetonitrile as a reddish viscous oil weighing 8.1 g. Anal. (C18H19NO3) C,H.
A solution of 7.9 g of distilled
3,5-dimethoxy-4-phenethyloxyphenylacetonitrile in 15 mL dry THF was added to a 0 !C solution of AH prepared from a vigorously stirred solution of 4.6 g LAH in 160 ml THF which had been treated, at 0 !C
with 3.6 mL 100% H2SO4 under an atmosphere of He. The gelatinaceous reaction mixture was brought to a brief reflux on the steam bath, then cooled again. It was treated with 5 mL IPA which destroyed the unreacted hydride, followed by sufficient 15% NaOH to give loose, white filterable solids. These were removed by filtration and washed with THF. The filtrate and the washes were combined and, after removal of the solvent under vacuum, there remained 7.8 g of the product as a crude base which crystallized spontaneously.
Distillation of this product at 170-180 !C at 0.35 mm/Hg gave 5.1 g white solids, with a mp of 85-86 !C from hexane. This base was dissolved in 20 mL warm IPA and treated with 1.6 mL concentrated HCl.
To the resulting clear solution, there was added 75 mL anhydrous Et2O
which gave, after a few moments of stirring, a spontaneous crystallization of 3,5-di-methoxy-4-phenethyloxyphenethylamine hydrochloride (PE) as beautiful white crystals. The weight was 5.4 g after air drying, and the mp was 151-152 !C. Anal. (C18H24ClNO3) C,H.
DOSAGE: greater than 150 mg.
DURATION: unknown.
QUALITATIVE COMMENTS: (with 150 mg) At most, there was a bare threshold over the course of the afternoon. A vague unreal feeling, as if I had not had quite enough sleep last night. By late afternoon, even this had disappeared and I was left with an uncertainty that anything at all had occurred.
EXTENSIONS AND COMMENTARY: There is not much there, so there is not much to make commentary on. This response is called a RthreshholdS
effect, and cannot be used to predict with any confidence just what level (if any) would produce psychological effects.
A similar chain on the 4-position, but with one less carbon atom, deserves special comment. Rather than a phenethyloxy group, this would be benzyloxy group (which in this day and age of Chemical Abstracts purity should probably be called a phenylmethoxy group). If one were to follow the naming philosophy of Rproscaline equals P and buscaline equals BS convention, one would call it 4-benzescaline, and give it the code name BZ. The nomenclature purist would probably call the compound PM (for phenylmescaline or, more likely phenylmethoxydimethoxyphenethylamine), since the term BZ is awkward and misleading. It is a code name that has been given to a potent CNS
agent known as quinuclidin-3-yl benzilate, which is a chemical and biological warfare (CBW) incapacitating agent currently being stored by the military to the extent of 20,000 pounds. And, BZ has also recently become the jargon name given to benzodiazepine receptors.
They have been called the BZ-receptors.
However, let's be awkward and misleading, and call this benzyloxy-base BZ. For one thing, the three-carbon analogue 3C-BZ has already been described in its own recipe using this code. And the 4-fluoroanalogue of it, 3C-FBZ, is also mentioned there. And BZ has already been described synthetically, having been made in exactly the procedure given for escaline, except that the reduction of the nitrile was not done by catalytic hydrogenation but rather by sodium borohydride in the presence of cobalt chloride. It has been shown to be a effective serotonin agonist, and may warrant human experimentation. The serotonin activity suggests that it might be active at the same levels found for proscaline.
All of this says very little about PE. But then, there is very little to say about PE except that it may be active at very high levels, and I am not sure just how to get there s
afely.
142 PEA; PHENETHYLAMINE
SYNTHESIS: This compound has been made industrially by a number of routes, the motant being the reduction of benzyl cyanide and the decarboxylation of phenylanaline. It is offered in the catalogs of all the major chemical supply houses for a few pennies per gram. It is a very strong base with a fishy smell, and rapidly forms a solid carbonate salt upon exposure to the air. It is a natural biochemical in both plants and animals.
DOSAGE: greater than 1600 mg.
DURATION: unknown.
QUALITATIVE COMMENTS: (with 200, 400, 800 and 1600 mg) No effects.
(with 500 mg) No effects.
(with 800 and 1600 mg) No effects.
(with 25 and 50 mg i.v.) RNo effects.
EXTENSIONS AND COMMENTARY: Here is the chemical that is central to this entire book. This is the structural point of departure for every compound that is discussed here. It is the RPS in PIHKAL. It is without activity in man! Certainly not for the lack of trying, as some of the dosage trials that are tucked away in the literature (as abstracted in the RQualitative CommentsS given above) are pretty heavy duty. Actually, I truly doubt that all of the experimenters used exactly that phrase, RNo effects,S but it is patently obvious that no effects were found. It happened to be the phrase I had used in my own notes.
This, the simplest of all phenethylamines, has always been the darling of the psychopharmacologists in that it is structurally clean, it is naturally present in various human fluids and tissues, and because of its close chemical relationship to amphetamine and to the neurotransmitters. These facts continuously encourage theories that involve PEA in mental illness. Its levels in urine may be decreased in people diagnosed as being depressed. Its levels may be increased in people diagnosed as being paranoid schizophrenics. Maybe it is also increased in people under extreme stress. The human trials were initially an attempt to provoke some psychological change, and indeed some clinicians have reported intense headaches generated in depressives following PEA administration. But then, others have seen nothing. The studies evolved into searches for metabolic difference that might be of some diagnostic value. And even here, the jury is still out.
Phenethylamine is found throughout nature, in both plants and animals.
It is the end product of phenylalanine in the putrefaction of tissue.
One of its most popularized occurrences has been as a major component of chocolate, and it has hit the Sunday Supplements as the love-sickness chemical. Those falling out of love are compulsive chocolate eaters, trying to replenish and repair the body's loss of this compound Q or so the myth goes. But this amine is voraciously metabolized to the apparently inactive compound phenylacetic acid, and to some tyramine as well. Both of these products are also normal components in the body. And, as a wry side-comment, phenylacetic acid is a major precursor in the illicit synthesis of amphetamine and methamphetamine.
Phenethylamine is intrinsically a stimulant, although it doesnUt last long enough to express this property. In other words, it is rapidly and completely destroyed in the human body. It is only when a number of substituent groups are placed here or there on the molecule that this metabolic fate is avoided and pharmacological activity becomes apparent.
To a large measure, this book has emphasized the RphenylS end of the phenethylamine molecule, and the Rwhat,S the where,S and the Rhow manyS of the substituent groups involved. There is a broad variety of chemical groups that can be attached to the benzene ring, at one or more of the five available positions, and in an unending number of combinations. And, in any given molecule, the greater the number of substituents on the benzene ring, the greater the likelihood that there will be psychedelic action rather that stimulant action. But what can be said about the RethylamineS end of the phenethylamine molecule? This is the veritable backbone that holds everything together, and simple changes here can produce new prototypes that can serve as starting points for the substituent game on the benzene ring. Thus, just as there is a RfamilyS of compounds based on the foundation of phenethylamine itself, there is an equally varied and rich RfamiliesS of other compounds that might be based on some phenethylamine with a small modification to its backbone. So, for the moment, leave the aromatic ring alone, and let us explore simple changes in the ethylamine chain itself. And the simplest structural unit of change is a single carbon atom, called the methyl group. Where can it be placed?
The adding of a methyl group adjacent to the amine produces phenylisopropylamine, or amphetamine. This has been exploited already as one of the richest families of psychedelic drugs; and over half of the recipes in Book II are specifically for amphetamine analogues with various substituents on the aromatic ring. The further methylation of amphetamine with yet another methyl group, this time on the nitrogen atom, yields methamphetamine. Here the track record with various substituents on the aromatic ring is not nearly as good. Many have been explored and, with one exception, the quality and potency of human activity is down. But the one exception, the N-methyl analogue of MDA, proved to be the most remarkable MDMA.
The placement of the methyl group between the two carbons (so to speak) produces a cyclopropyl system. The simplest example is 2-phenylcyclopropylamine, a drug with the generic name of tranylcypromine and the trade name Parnate. It is a mono-amine oxidase inhibitor and has been marketed as an antidepressant, but the compound is also a mild stimulant causing insomnia, restlessness and photophobia. Substitutions on the benzene ring of this system have not been too promising. The DOM analogue, 2,5-dimethoxy-4-methyltranylcypromine is active in man, and is discussed in its own recipe under DMCPA. The inactive mescaline analogue TMT is also mentioned there.
The dropping of one carbon from the phenethylamine chain gives a benzyl amine, basically an inactive nucleus. Two families deserve mention, however. The phencylidine area, phenylcyclohexylpiperidine or PCP, is represented by a number of benzyl amines. Ketamine is also a benzyl amine. These are all analgesics and anesthetics with central properties far removed from the stimulant area, and are not really part of this book. There is a benzyl amine that is a pure stimulant, which has been closely compared to amphetamine in its action This is benzylpiperazine, a base that is active in the 20 to 100 milligram range, but which has an acceptability similar to amphetamine. If this is a valid stimulant, I think that much magic might be found in and around compounds such as (1) the MDMA analogue, N-(3,4-methylenedioxybenzyl)piperazine (or its N-methyl-counterpart N-(3,4-methylenedioxybenzyl)-NU-methylpiperazine) or (2) the DOM
analogue, 2,5-dimethoxy-4-methylbenzylpiperazine. The benzyl amine that results by the relocation of the amine group of MDA from the beta-carbon atom to the alpha-carbon atom is known, and is active.
It, and its N-methyl homologue, are described and discussed in the commentary under MDA. Dropping another carbon atom gives a yet shorter chain (no carbons at all!) and this is to be found in the phenylpiperazine analogue 3-trifluoromethylphenylpiperazine. I have been told that this base is an active hallucinogen as the dihydrobromide salt at 50 milligrams sublingually, or at 15 milligrams intravenously in man. The corresponding 3-chloro analogue at 20 to 40
milligrams orally in man or at 8 milligrams intravenously, led to panic attacks in some 10% of the experimental subjects, but not to any observed psychedelic or stimulant responses.
What happens if you extend the chain to a third carbon? The parent system is called the phenyl-(n)-propylamine, and the parent chain structure, either as the primary amine or as its alpha-methyl counterpart, represents compounds that are inactive as stimulants.
The DOM-analogues have been made and are, at least in the rabbit rectal hyperthermia assay, uninteresting. A commercially available fine chemical known as piperonylacetone has been offered as either of two materials. One, correctly called 3,4-methylenedioxyphenylacetone or 3,4-methylenedioxybenzyl methyl ketone, gives rise upon reductive amination to MDA (using ammonia) or MDMA (using methylamine). This is an aromatic compound with a three-carbon side-chain and the amine-nitrogen o
n the beta-carbon. The other so-called piperonylacetone is really 3,4-methylenedioxybenzylacetone, an aromatic compound with a four-carbon side-chain. It produces, on reductive amination with ammonia or methylamine, the corresponding alpha-methyl-(n)-propylamines, with a four-carbon side-chain and the amine-nitrogen on the gamma-carbon. They are completely unexplored in man and so it is not known whether they are or are not psychedelic.
As possible mis-synthesized products, they may appear quite unintentionally and must be evaluated as totally new materials. The gamma-amine analogue of MDA, a methylenedioxy substituted three carbon side-chain with the amine-nitrogen on the gamma carbon, has indeed been made and evaluated, and is discussed under MDA. The extension of the chain of mescaline to three atoms, by the inclusion of an oxygen atom, has produced two compounds that have also been assayed. They are mentioned in the recipe for mescaline.
The chain that reaches out to the amine group can be tied back in again to the ring, with a second chain. There are 2-aminobenzoindanes which are phenethylamines with a one-carbon link tying the alpha-position of the chain back to the aromatic ring. And there are 2-aminotetralines which are phenethylamines which have a two-carbon link tying the alpha-position of the chain back to the aromatic ring.
Both unsubstituted ring systems are known and both are fair stimulants. Both systems have been modified with the DOM substituent patterns (called DOM-AI and DOM-AT respectively), but neither of these has been tried in man. And the analogues with the MDA substitution pattern are discussed elsewhere in this book.
And there is one more obvious remaining methylation pattern. What about phenethylamine or amphetamine compounds with two methyl groups on the nitrogen? The parent amphetamine example, N,N-dimethylamphetamine, has received much notoriety lately in that it has become a scheduled drug in the United States. Ephedrine is a major precursor in the illicit synthesis of methamphetamine, and with the increased law-enforcement attention being paid to this process, there has been increasing promotion of the unrestricted homologue, N-methylephedrine, to the methamphetamine chemist. This starting material gives rise to N,N-dimethylamphetamine which is a material of dubious stimulant properties. A number of N,N-dimethylamphetamine derivatives, with RpsychedelicS ring substituents, have been explored as iodinated brain-flow indicators, and they are explicitly named within the appropriate recipes. But none of them have shown any psychedelic action.
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