Benzoylecgonine in Cocaine?

[Didgital]

So I test a fair amount of cocaine samples using a GC/MS. Every once in a while we find benzoylecgonine in small amounts. However, it really should not be present in cocaine as it is a metabolite and afaik not known to be in the plant. Was hoping someone could provide some insight as to it's presence. I was thinking that maybe it is an artifact of analysis but I don't see it in every sample. Could it be the product of cocaine reacting with a cut? Maybe I'm getting the sample too hot?

Doubt I'll hear an answer but i figure it doesn't hurt to ask.

 

[MedicinalUser247]

It could be caused by an impurity process, but I'm not sure.

 

[Quasimoto]

Doesn't it thermally degrade into anhydroecgonine? False positives maybe? Plus all those metabolites are thought to be psychoactive themselves, maybe it's intentionally added? (although that idea seems quite absurd)

Or maybe they found a method to cost-effectively extract unmetabolized cocaine from urine to maximize profits, and that's extracted along with it.

I had this one weird daydream once about a "meth user farm", where they pump people full of meth, use them as meth slaves, then milk their piss like cows to recover said meth, then repeat the process for a nearly 100% efficient profit/meth slave system. Almost like a perpetual motion machine.

 

[Didgital]

Doesn't it thermally degrade into anhydroecgonine?

I have to admit, my knowledge oc cocaine chemistry is probably more then most, but still very limited.

I see benzoic acid as a cut somewhat frequently, and I assumed that either ecgonine (how the fuck do you prounce that word) or cocaine was maybe reacting with it, but when I look at the structure of benzoylecgonine, it's essentially a demethylated cocaine.

I'm just wondering why I'm seeing it in cocaine at all, and why I see it some samples and not others.

-----

Also your theory interesting but I high doubt any of those scenarios are really happening.

Pretty sure methamphetamine gets metabolized into something else so you couldn't continuously recycle it like they do with muscimol.

 

[Quasimoto]

Pretty sure methamphetamine gets metabolized into something else

I think I read something once that a majority amount (something like 60% of the meth) is excreted in urine unmetabolized, which inspired my novel brilliancy of the meth farm idea, but I am prone to false memories.

Yet, I would also presume that isolating relatively small amounts of meth from urine would be extremely inefficient, costly and/or difficult.

So I guess my idea for a meth farm would require a cultivated and acquired taste of yellow koolaid.

 

[Didgital]

I think I read something once that a majority amount (something like 60% of the meth) is excreted in urine unmetabolized, which inspired my novel brilliancy of the meth farm idea, but I am prone to false memories.

Yet, I would also presume that isolating relatively small amounts of meth from urine would be extremely inefficient, costly and/or difficult.

So I guess my idea for a meth farm would require a cultivated and acquired taste of yellow koolaid.

I did not know that!

With the right chromatography anything is possible

:D

 

[MedicinalUser247]

I forget what it's called, but there's a waste product after cocaine is produced and the waste product is smoked by people in South America to get high. It might be what your finding in your samples. It could be that it's being cut with the waste product or that the waste product is not being properly extracted from the cocaine.

 

[Transform]

Benzoyl ecgonine can be produced due to degradation in the GC, and is also believed to be a breakdown product from storage under humid conditions when there is residual acid from the production process.


If you search for ecgonine in WEDINOS results, there are quite a lot of hits for this, and other cocaine hydrolysis products. Therefore, I suspect it is the degradation in storage causing many of these hits.

I forget what it's called, but there's a waste product after cocaine is produced and the waste product is smoked by people in South America to get high.

Are you thinking of paco/basuco? That's crude/barely processed cocaine freebase. Benzoylecgonine and other hydrolysis products can't get people high.

 

[Didgital]

Benzoyl ecgonine can be produced due to degradation in the GC, and is also believed to be a breakdown product from storage under humid conditions when there is residual acid from the production process.


If you search for ecgonine in WEDINOS results, there are quite a lot of hits for this, and other cocaine hydrolysis products. Therefore, I suspect it is the degradation in storage causing many of these hits.



Are you thinking of paco/basuco? That's crude/barely processed cocaine freebase. Benzoylecgonine and other hydrolysis products can't get people high.

Thank you so much!


"I forget what it's called, but there's a waste product after cocaine is produced and the waste product is smoked by people in South America to get high."

They call it bazooka. It's low quality crack essentially. Very familiar.

 

[neversickanymore]

Benzoylecgonine and other hydrolysis products can't get people high.

Effect of cocaine metabolites on behavior: possible neuroendocrine mechanisms - PubMed

The predominant cocaine metabolites were tested for central nervous system effects by intracerebroventricular (ICV) administration in rats. We found two types of responses: cocaine, norcocaine (NC), benzoylecgonine (BE), and benzoylnorecgonine (Nor BE) produced stimulatory effects, whereas...

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

apparently it can

 

[G_Chem]

It can form from hydrolysis and is the degradation product of said hydrolysis. Very easy to have happen and if look at Drugs Data you’ll see tons of entries with quite a lot. Cocaine degrades fairly rapidly even in refrigerator temperatures. Within a year of production there would be noticeable amounts of benzoylecgonine in there. This is why it’s best to keep it as dry and cool as possible.

As someone who’s done nearly pure benzoylecgonine after fucking up and having all my coke hydrolyze on me, it’s not something you want in there.

-GC

 

[Chihuahua gang]

Doesn't it thermally degrade into anhydroecgonine? False positives maybe? Plus all those metabolites are thought to be psychoactive themselves, maybe it's intentionally added? (although that idea seems quite absurd)

Or maybe they found a method to cost-effectively extract unmetabolized cocaine from urine to maximize profits, and that's extracted along with it.

I had this one weird daydream once about a "meth user farm", where they pump people full of meth, use them as meth slaves, then milk their piss like cows to recover said meth, then repeat the process for a nearly 100% efficient profit/meth slave system. Almost like a perpetual motion machine.

Don't get me started on the shit I think is actually going on ill leave it at that without getting spooky. Its not for everyone to understand or know. Precursors and molecular structures we can't identify or don't have the tech to track or know what it's derived from.

Would love to get behind a GC/MS tho. It's on the white board.

Ime the humidity and moisture content effects everything, oxidation etc. I mean that's a given. It's tricky to say. I don't have enough knowledge on the topic to be of help and i hate speculating over the web when i cant use more senses and talk over it directly. As iv found out there's no info on a lot of in depth info on things like this and we all run into speed bumps on shit.

 

[Didgital]

Would love to get behind a GC/MS tho.

I'm the one behind the gc.

Answers just lead to more questions with A LOT.

 

[MedicinalUser247]

Benzoyl ecgonine can be produced due to degradation in the GC, and is also believed to be a breakdown product from storage under humid conditions when there is residual acid from the production process.


If you search for ecgonine in WEDINOS results, there are quite a lot of hits for this, and other cocaine hydrolysis products. Therefore, I suspect it is the degradation in storage causing many of these hits.



Are you thinking of paco/basuco? That's crude/barely processed cocaine freebase. Benzoylecgonine and other hydrolysis products can't get people high.

Thank you for the answer.