Amphetamines adrenaline, similarity

Amphetamines are drugs that mimic the effects of epinephrine, or adrenalin. Because effects such as mental illness and brain damage can result from overuse of amphetamines, they currently have limited medical use. Metamphetamines are similar to amphetamines in structure and action but have fewer undesirable side effects. Ritalin (methylphemdate), commonly used to treat attention deficit disorder, has essentially the same mode of action as amphetamines. Ritalin abuse by middle and high school students has become a common concern. 

Because of the known physiological activities of adrenaline and mescaline, chemists have synthesized compounds with similar structures. One such compound is amphetamine, a central nervous system stimulant. Amphetamine and a close relative, methamphetamine, are used clinically as appetite suppressants. Methamphetamine is the street dmg known as speed because of its rapid and intense psychological effects. Two other synthetic substituted benzenes, BHA and BHT, are preservatives (see Section 9.8) found in a wide variety of packaged foods. These compounds represent just a few of the many substituted benzenes that have been synthesized for commercial use by the chemical and pharmaceutical industries. 

Potter and co-workers [132] have separated adrenaline, noradrenaline and some of their metabolites on cellulose layers [7.5 g cellulose MN-300 (cf. p. 34) + 45 ml methanol layers dried 10 min at 105° C] at chamber saturation, using the solvent n-butanol, saturated with 3N HCl. Noradrenaline, adrenaline, isoprenaline, ephedrine and amphetamine have been chromatographed similarly on cellulose layers [20 g cellulose MN-300 G (cf. p. 499) + 100 ml water layers dried 2 h at... 

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