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Toxic effects of Mn Impurity in Methcathinone

phase_dancer

phase_dancer

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While I'd doubt much pseudoephedrine circulating on the black market is destined to become methcathinone, the use of cathinones has increased in Australia recently. For those users who prefer methcat over methamphetamine, the reactants required for oxidation could be more easily available than those needed for reduction. A common and very simple method of preparing methcathinone is via the oxidation of pseudoephedrine/ephedrine using potassium permanganate, the permanganate being reduced to MnO2.

A Parkinsonian Syndrome in Methcathinone Users and the Role of Manganese
Ainars Stepens, M.D., Inara Logina, Ph.D., Viesturs Liguts, Ph.D., Pauls Aldins, M.D., Ilze Eksteina, M.D., Ardis Platkajis, Ph.D., Inese Martinsone, M.Sci., Elmars Terauds, M.D., Baiba Rozentale, Ph.D., and Michael Donaghy, F.R.C.P.



ABSTRACT

Background A distinctive extrapyramidal syndrome has been observed in intravenous methcathinone (ephedrone) users in Eastern Europe and Russia.

Methods We studied 23 adults in Latvia who had extrapyramidal symptoms and who had injected methcathinone for a mean (±SD) of 6.7±5.1 years. The methcathinone was manufactured under home conditions by potassium permanganate oxidation of ephedrine or pseudoephedrine. All patients were positive for hepatitis C virus, and 20 were also positive for the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).

Results The patients reported that the onset of their first neurologic symptoms (gait disturbance in 20 and hypophonia in 3) occurred after a mean of 5.8±4.5 years of methcathinone use. At the time of neurologic evaluation, all 23 patients had gait disturbance and difficulty walking backward; 11 patients were falling daily, and 1 of these patients used a wheelchair. Twenty-one patients had hypophonic speech in addition to gait disturbance, and one of these patients was mute. No patient reported decline in cognitive function. T1-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) showed symmetric hyperintensity in the globus pallidus and in the substantia nigra and innominata in all 10 active methcathinone users. Among the 13 former users (2 to 6 years had passed since the last use), lesser degrees of change in the MRI signal were noted. Whole-blood manganese levels (normal level, <209 nmol per liter) averaged 831 nmol per liter (range, 201 to 2102) in the active methcathinone users and 346 nmol per liter (range, 114 to 727) in former users. The neurologic deficits did not resolve after patients discontinued methcathinone use.

Conclusions Our observation of a distinctive extrapyramidal syndrome, changes in the MRI signal in the basal ganglia, and elevated blood manganese levels in methcathinone users suggests that manganese in the methcathinone solution causes a persistent neurologic disorder.

From here
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I'm surprised that H2O2 isn't more used. It's easy enough to purify the drug store stuff and it's a lot less likely to leave you with a bunch of benzaldehyde.

I'm one of those who greatly prefers mcat to mamp. It's way more of a party drug and chat-inducing at lower doses (equalized, anyway), not raising BP or HR as much.
 
Very interesting.

I bet there is a whole bunch of studies just like this one for clandestine mamp.

A number of my friends in Aus rate mcat as a better party drug than mamp and mdma.
 
If conditions are selected in a wise manner, then all manganese should be reduced to (water-soluble) Mn2+. Therefore, with the means of A/B-extraction one could easily wash away all manganese-traces. This is basic stuff for a chemist but I only guess that the studied persons of that article (which were all looong-time abusers with serious diseases) don't had the clue. This is what happens when amateurs try to practice kitchen chemistry.

But thx for the info. Good to know that manganese can cause "persistent neurologic disorder" (irrversibel?). As far as I remember this counts also for phosphorous impurities in Meth (when using red phosphorous as reagent) or mercury traces (when using amalganates) and so on...

There comes a question into my mind when talking about this problem: What would be the best way to detect such inorganic impurities? Atom emissions spectroscopy would be my 1st guess (of course we all got such a device in our basement :p ). 2nd idea: Classic inorganic qualitative analysis (oxidation of Mn2+ to permanganate with lead dioxide. Hmmmm, tasty!). What else?

Peace!
 
Hypochloride is absolutely horrible. It leaves you with a bunch of benzaldehyde. There's really no way to make it work- although hypothetically, it should.

Benzaldehyde is valuable in it's own right, but not really what most people want from their pseudoephedrine.
 
I had never heard of anyone getting manganism from MCAT, but i suppose over extended time periods its entirely possible. As mentioned, KMn04 can be used safely if the Mn is reduced and then washed away. And, the NaOCl method is certainly far from the best. The yeilds using KMn04 are better than the h2o2, arent they (maybe not, im unsure)?
 
negrogesic said:
The yeilds using KMn04 are better than the h2o2, arent they (maybe not, im unsure)?
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It depends. KMnO4 also tends to leave you with a bunch of benzaldehyde if you use even slightly too much. I like peroxide because you never have that problem.

I can't find any data on the yields it produces though.
 
@Pyridinyl: Like PCC or Collins-/Jones-reagent? Should work quite well. Yields are expected to exceed 80 %. Sidereactions...hmmm...I don't think a lot, but that should be tested. But you risk to have chromium traces in your material, what is even more disgusting than manganese... And who wants do deal with toxic/cancerogen chromium when you got KMnO4 or H2O2?
 
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The chromium produced isn't in the toxic +6 oxidation state afaik.
It's also very insoluble and easily filtered out. I'm talking about using CrO3-H2SO4 (Jones Reagent) here, not Cr2O7- ...
It's worth using IPA after reaction completion to neutralize the remaining chromioc acid oxidant in solution, to allow for a clean and easy post-rxn workup.
However I think H2O2 is a superior method, even though it's lower yield.

An even better one would be the TEMPO/HCl/NaNO2 oxidation system, IMO. I'd expect yields of over 90% and little to no sideproducts. Chemistry. 2008 Mar 17;14(9):2679-2685.
 
Oh yeah, TEMPO should work, but isn't that a bit too expensive? I am not sure about prices... And I also agree: Probably the H2O2-method is the best one, at least from the ones mentioned in this thread.

Maybe I am just confused but isn't CrO3 = Cr(VI), is it? CrO3, as in Jones-Reagent, is at least by a very famous belgian company labeled as T+. Plz correct if I am wrong. Anyway, it's like with manganese: Removal should be easy and unproblematic in either case, it just gets problematic when you work sloppy and traces are left.
 
Lets not get embroiled in a synthesis discussion or you know what happens to the thread...

And yes chromium trioxide is hexavalent chromium, just that CrO3 isn't ionic - it needs to be turned into either chromic acid or a chromium salt to be real nasty
 
Oh true ;o - my bad - of course it is +6 !
TEMPO is expensive yes but it can be used at 33:1 substrate:TEMPO molar ratio (or higher, presumably, but the reaction times would be longer), so really it's not -too- big of a problem.
Anyway, enough talk of synthesis, perhaps we can dicusss workup which avoids inclusion of toxic sideproducts...
 
Such a workup is in my opinion quite easy (as most of you probably know): Most psychoactives are bases, so do a A/B-extraction at pH > 7 and wash wash wash (w/ water and brine). That's it.
 
I have learnt not to snort any drug without purifying it first. Like coke, its usually cut with speedy drugs like caffeine, which sucks. Stupid dealers are really mother fuckers who add adulterants to precious cocaine only to size it up and make more money. I'd rather pay more for the pure stuff, stupid dealers.

Anyways... Acetone is the solvent of choice for purification... Most HCL drugs are not soluble in it, but users must dry the acetone really good and fast first, because water gets into it so easily. Acetone washes are efficient only if big quantities of the drug are used. If you wanna clean your coke or meth or mdma or wathever, try to wash at least 3 grams...cause the acetone is likely to contain traces of water no matter how hard you try to make it anhydrous, and a little loss of the drug is inevitable
%):p
 
Not pretending to be a mod here, but could you please stop reviving old borderline synthesis threads only to post your irrelevant musings? How about checking the date before you post?
 
Alcyone said:
Not pretending to be a mod here, but could you please stop reviving old borderline synthesis threads only to post your irrelevant musings? How about checking the date before you post?
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Agreed. Cut it out.

Also; in my 4 year old reply to this thread, my discussion of potassium permanganate and hydrogen peroxide was solely in context to ultra-nerdy model rocketry.

But seriously, as it pertains to MCAT, it's no secret that KCl04 is the oxidizer of choice.......
 
absolutely...

Anyway, in the referenced thread, there is no reference to purifying the H2O2. Unless their drug stores are much cooler than mine, H2O2 is sold as a three percent solution, not 30%. Since getting to thirty percent is time consuming, I'm guessing that the genius' who tried that were using 3%, and they're probably right, it didn't work.
 
OOh, on the subject of KMnO4 in rocketry, are you talking about using a KMnO4-Sucrose propellant, similar to the ubiquitous KNO3-Sucrose motors? Not sure I'd be willing to melt that combination in my oven! LOL Even KNO3-Sucrose had me a bit nervous a few times mixing it with the melted sugar, but there's no way in hell I'd try it with KMnO4!

What fuel does work? I'm not about to try it, but KMnO4 might have very slightly better luck with paraffin or epoxy. By products are too heavy to make it particularly useful regardless. KMnO4+Naphthalene ftw
 
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