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Nitrate salts of stimulants?

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Nitric acid is used to make pharmaceutical salts of some compounds (e.g. arginine nitrate for bodybuilding).

The nitrate anion is converted in the body to nitric oxide (NO). NO of course is the neurotransmitter that causes vasodilation.

Nitrate salts are all water-soluble.

vasodilation + solubility pushes the imagination directly toward snorting nitrate salts of recreational stimulants. My question is: are stoichiometrically-equivalent amounts of nitrate (one nitrate per molecule of stimulant) safe to snort?

Also (just out of curiosity), are there other pharmaceutical salts in which both the cation and anion are biologically active?
 
I think that for some compounds it makes sense but when the dosage gets up it gets dangerous. Imagine mephedrone nitrate salt with all the kids binging for days in large doses...
 
Interesting concept, though. Maybe with a stimulant where the dose is a lot lower than mephedrone? MDPV springs to mind.
 
Amine nitrate salts are usually explosive. Esp. ammonium nitrate, urea nitrate, etc. The nitrate ion is a good oxidising agent, amines are reducing, together they're super energetic. It's just a matter of time before some goofball takes them out of solution by boiling on an open flame, and then FFT your stash goes up in smoke.
 
Amine nitrate salts are usually explosive. Esp. ammonium nitrate, urea nitrate, etc. The nitrate ion is a good oxidising agent, amines are reducing, together they're super energetic. It's just a matter of time before some goofball takes them out of solution by boiling on an open flame, and then FFT your stash goes up in smoke.

good comment. Did some digging after reading this. From what I understand:

ammonium nitrate isn't explosive (its fire diamond has a zero in the red spot)

urea nitrate is not an ammonium nitrate. It's an oxonium nitrate:
200px-Urea_nitrate.png


I cannot find data on the stability of alkylammonium nitrates. Ethylammonium nitrate is a really interesting compound though. It's a room-temperature ionic liquid and it's apparently used as a renaturant (I did not know that was possible: renaturation).
 
^^Ammonium nitrate is certainly explosive under the right conditions, which I won't specify (if drug synthesis is prohibited I would hope explosives synthesis is also). How broadly this applies to other nitrates IDK.
 
There are binary drugs where both halves are active, a barbiturate salt of codeine, dionine I believe was the brand name, has been done and there are a few others, but I can't name them off the top of my head now.

Snorting a nitrate sounds painful, remember it is an oxidizer, snorting a strong oxidizer cannot be any more fun than say, getting a droplet of molten sodium up one's nose, and going from experience, that is NOT enjoyable :/

Or try accidentally forgetting you were working with permanganate and then scratching your nether regions....

Oxidizing agents and mucous membranes do not mix, well they do, but the result isn't something you want to experience...that KMnO4-related mishap was with milligram-level quantities remaining on hand after a reaction, I cannot imagine how painful a half-gram line of anything-nitrate would prove to be.

And yes ammonium nitrate is explosive, however it is very stable, and needs a *hell* of a lot more than a whack with a hammer or lighting with a fuse/match/blowtorch to get it to go off, so much so it is usually started with a plastic explosive, or TNT, which sort of says something about how reluctant it is to go boom.
 
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good comment. Did some digging after reading this. From what I understand:

ammonium nitrate isn't explosive (its fire diamond has a zero in the red spot)

urea nitrate is not an ammonium nitrate. It's an oxonium nitrate:
200px-Urea_nitrate.png


I cannot find data on the stability of alkylammonium nitrates. Ethylammonium nitrate is a really interesting compound though. It's a room-temperature ionic liquid and it's apparently used as a renaturant (I did not know that was possible: renaturation).
Ammonium nitrate is a high explosive, but it does not burn. It will, however, decompose quite easily (note the yellow 3), and hydrated forms are more explosive than the pure compound.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ammonium_nitrate_disasters
 
So insufflation is ruled out, and dry storage may be unwise, but what about a small dose of nitrate orally with your compound. Would have have a vasodilatory effect as suggested?
 
In theory yeah, but it won't last long and will probably be more effective at damaging your tissues than preventing harm.

Also, nitrate salts are regularly cool colors like yellow and orange.
 
nitrate salts are problematic because nitric acid is a powerful oxidant and tends to chew things up residual nitric acid is really annoying, nitrate salts are also more hygroscopic than many alternative salts due to their solubility, they tend to be salts of last resort..
 
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