Interesting simple breakdown of biosynthetic pathways:

[Nagelfar]

Biosynthesis & Biomimetic Total Synthesis

Shows the parallels of say, bufotenin and lysergic acid, the biosynthesis of morphine from the oxidative phenolic coupling of reticuline, and touches on just about every major psychoactive substance. It's a great resource to brush up on what precedes what, etc., in the biological structure of these compounds.

I've discovered some interesting sister substances just purusing through it: i.e. "chanoclavine" & "galantamine"

 

[dopamimetic]

Have yet to read that paper, thanks for the link

A very interesting 'sister substance' (not really related though) I recently stumbled about is sinomenine - kind of dextro-morphine. It doesn't have any opioid affinity but it releases histamine. Makes me curious if this has some of the stimulating properties of very low opiate doses which I thought to be possibly histaminergic, as the intensity and duration correlated with the itching effect.

 

[clubcard]

The original link is EXCELLENT for brushing up on natures way of making drugs and the chemists way. Steps that either require complex catalysts & give low yields can often be done in a plant which has it's own production line. I recommend it to all. I'm gutted that we cannot even discuss synthesis of non-psychoactive drugs because as time goes by, you remember a post which has a step in it you need.

 

[dopamimetic]

Theoretical synthesis discussion would be nice yeah maybe a closed invite-only sub forum?

 

[clubcard]

Happy to - but don't want to get thrown our. Sort of undergraduates and up discussions? I REALLY want the IUPAC<->SMILES<->Image plug in for this site. I have begun JUST giving IUPAC or SMILES so people have to put the work in drawing it (yeah - cut & paste with many free editors) rather than me having to do all of the work. Sounds good to me! Would be good to get Seiko as he has VPN so we can safely send things.

 

[dopamimetic]

http://opsin.ch.cam.ac.uk/ and it's embeddable (as you'll probably already know, but for others, I've just found that)

(this one has more functions like a graphical molecule editor etc and is open source, but requires more coding too)

 

[clubcard]

THAT is so cool - the site managers should EASILY be able to add it! Wow... WOW! Fantastic idea!

 

[dopamimetic]

Happy to - but don't want to get thrown our. Sort of undergraduates and up discussions?

I'm thinking about realizing such a forum as a TOR hidden service, if enough interest persists. Have to read more about.. (does something like that not already exist...??)

 

[aced126]

Clubcard, do you know of a forum for (aspiring) medicinal chemists?

 

[Nagelfar]

http://opsin.ch.cam.ac.uk/ and it's embeddable (as you'll probably already know, but for others, I've just found that)

(this one has more functions like a graphical molecule editor etc and is open source, but requires more coding too)

dopamimetic, do you know of any html online chem programs that overlay two separate molecules in three dimensions?