Sulfamic acid zinc chloride

It has now been found that cannabidiol isomerizes upon treatment, for example, with a variety of reagents such as p-toluenesulfonic acid, sulfuric acid, hydrochloric acid and ethanol, hydrogen chloride in ether, pyridine hydrochloride, sulfamic acid, zinc chloride, ethanolic phosphoric acid, etc. and is converted to tetrahydro cannabinol which has marihuana activity and which may be represented by the following formula, with doubt merely in regard to the position of the double bond in the left-hand cycle. 

Zinc chloride is a Lewis acid catalyst that promotes cellulose esterification. However, because of the large quantities required, this type of catalyst would be uneconomical for commercial use. Other compounds such as titanium alkoxides, eg, tetrabutoxytitanium (80), sulfate salts containing cadmium, aluminum, and ammonium ions (81), sulfamic acid, and ammonium sulfate (82) have been reported as catalysts for cellulose acetate production. In general, they require reaction temperatures above 50°C for complete esterification. Relatively small amounts (<0.5%) of sulfuric acid combined with phosphoric acid (83), sulfonic acids, eg, methanesulfonic, or alkyl phosphites (84) have been reported as good acetylation catalysts, especially at reaction temperatures above 90°C. 

Processes employing sulfamic acid or zinc chloride follow the general process described above. Upon heating cannabidiol with these reagents, the Beam test rapidly disappeared. From a sulfamic acid experiment at 125° (0.5 g. of cannabidiol, 1 g. of sulfamic acid), the product gave a specific rotation of—250°. 

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