How can you test for cathinone? Obviously its now a classed drug in the UK and a lot of legal high websites sell things that could potentially have cathinon in it, which could land you in a lot of trouble if taken away and tested. Is there any way to test a substance for cathinone?
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N&PD Moderators: Skorpio
How can you test for cathinone?
- Thread starter badgers
- Start date
sekio
Bluelight Crew
The most reliable way is a NMR spectrum, but those are restricted to universities and research labs. GC/MS or LC/MS traces are good too, and are regularly used in analytical labs when coupled with a knowledgable staff and a pure internal reference.
I'm sure you can do TLC (thin layer chromatography) combined with the Marquis/Mandelin/Mecke to detect cathinones with good accuracy. You can also form the 2,4-dinitrophenylhydrazide and do a crystal analysis if you have larger quantities.
Among the crudest methods are simple reagent tests w/no chromatography and melting point tests.
The best option is to avoid "legal high" websites altogether.Last edited:
23536
Bluelight Crew
You can use 2,4-dinitrophenylhydrazine to test for carbonyls
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brady's_test#Brady.27s_test
but it's probably too much trouble getting the reagent
sekio
Bluelight Crew
Don't go to legal high websites, or if you do, don't order controlled substances off them - or substances of unknown history and chemical composition, like "NRG-1" or "Jolly blue prills" or whatever. Stick to ordering pure chemicals from reliable vendors.
If you do start ordering wacky "legal highs" don't be suprised if they get seized.
2,4 DNPH is OK for testing for carbonyls but not cathinones specifically. I would back it up with at least some reagent tests.
If you are desperate to test stuff, get an organic chemistry manual and some TLC plates (order them from a science store i guess), some solvents (pure alcohol, pure heptane, etc) and some reagent tests from DanceSafe. Learn to do TLC plates and develop them with your reagent tests.
sekio
Bluelight Crew
The EZ-tests reagents are ususally any of these 5 - Marquis, Mecke, Mandelin, Robadope, Simons reagents. They can be used to detect the presence of various drugs, assuming that you have a fairly pure substance and multiple reagents (Just one reagent test isn't enough). As soon as you start having "mixes" of products the test becomes much less reliable - hence why I suggest getting some TLC equipment, so you can seperate the active compounds before detecting them.