Testing for PMA

[Afterm4th]

Hi. I've seen a lot of differnt pill testing kits on the internet. Some are very good. I've seen ones that come with regiments to test for MDMA, MDA, MDEA, 2c-*, DXM, meth etc etc..

There are regiments out there that can even test between MDA and MDMA which is great.

But one regiment i've NEVER seen is a test for PMA. Shouldnt PMA be the #1 people test for? Why cant I find a pill testing kit that will tell me if PMA is present?

 

[phase_dancer]

But one regiment i've NEVER seen is a test for PMA. Shouldnt PMA be the #1 people test for? Why cant I find a pill testing kit that will tell me if PMA is present?

It's all about finding a good reagent that will discern PMA over other drugs. Mandelin reagent can indicate the presence of PMA although if PMA is mixed with MDA it will likely be impossible to detect with presently available reagents. (unless TLC was also performed)

Enlighten; Mandelin Reagent Colour Chart

Note that colour charts are only intended as a guide. From personal communications with a forensic scientist, it appears some salts of PMA may cause slightly different colour changes (e.g. more of a pink than a brown).

Older versions of Clarkes "Analysis of drugs and poisons" listed the colour change as per Enlighten's chart as does ealier work by Johns et al. however, the latest edition of Clarkes (available as an online trial ) lists a slightly different result again, stating green is the only colour produced by a PMA reaction with Mandelin.

If you had a pill with PMA only, Mandelin would be expected to give something like the colour change on the Enlighten chart and Marquis should produce no colour change. Those results would therefore be a fairly good indication that the pill contains PMA.