HELP! - Weird Marquis result - Is it 2-CB?

Hi guys.

Just tested some pills for a friend. The results with Marquis was purple, with green on the edges of the regent, and more noticeable as the regent was "spread".

Could that indicate MD** + 2-CB?

Picture below @ about 90 seconds of regent being added to sample.

Thankyou.

Just to add. To test the regent, a test on a "Blue Sky" was tested afterward with no additional color to the purple.

I've gotten this result before from the white MTV's in September. The green is caused by the oxidisation of the marquis reagent. The first one I ate felt dirty, like MDMA and speed. The second one gave me crazy OEV's, CEV's and nausea but everyone else who had the same pills didn't get them. I'm not convinced it was 2C-B because of this.

Which batch did you test?

These were from a White "T" pill.
Enlighten tested a very similar pill as MD** and Amph 6 months ago.

Yep the green colour is from oxidation test result should be observed within seconds and taken from the middle of the liquid.

Could be another additive/ impurity or simply a reaction with an excipient or binder used in the pill.

I'm thinking there may be enough interest for a commercially available extracting solution. This would be simply an ethanol solution with buffers. The extracted amines would then be subjected to reaction with Marquis etc.

The thing is, if users got into this habit, they may be better prepared for a future quantitative test, which will most likely require an intital extraction of some sort (unless of course Raman spec comes down in price substantially)


The mechanism of Marquis and amines works largely because of the compounds formed with formadehyde. In the presence of acid, formadehyde (HCOH) reacts with the amine to form a structure comprising of 2 amine molecules. This intermediate further react in the presence of acid to yield a rearranged product possessing in the case morphine, a carbenium ion or an oxonium ion. A similar reaction occurs with MDMA via the opening of the methylenedioxy ring. Thus formadehyde forms C-C bonds through condensation reactions. The mechanisms are rather complex, so here's a simplified version involving morphine which I've re-drawn from Thin-Layer Chromatography by Jork et al. Volume 1b, page 300