Methamphetamine chemical structure

The composition of the six controlled substance analogs listed above often stimulate the same areas of the brain, but are chemically quite distinct from one another. MDMA (3, 4-methylenedioxymethampheta-mine) is a complex drug that makes simple classification difficult. Its chemical structure is related both to the stimulant methamphetamine and the hallucinogen mescaline. Methamphetamine bears a close resemblance to two powerful chemicals in the body, dopamine and norepinephrine, which regulate mood, memory, and movement. 

Some designer drugs are mescaline analogs, meaning they are similar in chemical structure. The most popular mescaline analog is 3,4-methylenediozy-methamphetamine (MDMA or Ecstasy). Other analogs of mescaline include amphetamines and metham-phetamines. 

ECSTASY" (also known as "XTC" or "E") is the "street" name of one member of a family of amphetamine related drugs which first became popular in the "rave" or modem dance music culture across Europe in the 1980s (Table 1). Its chemical name is 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) closely related drugs include methylenedioxyamphetamine (MDA) and methylene-dioxyethylamphetamine (MDEA). The chemical structure of this series of drugs and their relationship to older better known stimulants of abuse, amphetamine and methamphetamine, is shown in Figure 1. 

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. 

Ephedrine is an alkaloid, a sympathomimetic amine with molecular formula Cjo Hi5 NOi, a molecular mass of 165.2, and the stmctural name (IR, 25)-2-methylamino-l-phenylpropan-l-ol. This bitter colorless or white solid-crystal is completely soluble in water, alcohol, chloroform, ether, and glycerol. Ephedrine is also produced by chemical synthesis and there is significant documentation of commercial ephedrine production using microbial biotransformation techniques [42]. Ephedrine has a structure close to methamphetamines, and its stimulant actions are comparable to epinephrine (adrenaline), a hormone produces by the adrenal glands that enhances heart rate and constriction of blood vessels in high-stress situations. Medicinal use of ephedrine began around 3000 B.C with the Chinese from md hudng, but its isolation was first reported in 1855 and its pharmaceutical application started in 1930 [22]. Studies on ephedrine s molecular structure show that two asynunetric carbon atoms are involved in ephedrine s molecular skeleton therefore, four optically active stereoisomers forms naturally occur as follows (IR, 2S)-(—)-ephedrine, (IS, 2R)-(+)-ephedrine, (IR, 2R)-( )-pseudoephedrine, (IS, 2S)-(+)-pseudoephedrine (Fig. 27.2). 

Methamphetamine contains a chiral carbon, a carbon atom with four different groups attached, and therefore exists as two optical isomers, which are non-superimposable mirror images of each other. The isomers have identical chemical reactions, solubilities and melting points. They differ in their opposite rotations of plane-polarized light and, because they have different 3D structures, they ht protein receptors differently, and therefore have different effects upon the body. L-Methamphetamine is simply a decongestant, and has no stimulant activity. But its optical isomer, D-methamphetamine, is the stimulant commonly known as speed . 

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