Properties of Cat (Methcathinone Freebase & Salts)?

chemust · Sat Apr 23, 2005 6:14 am

1. What are the properties of the freebase e.g. m.p./b.p. . I mainly need to know if it's solid or liquid at room temp (no distillation app yet so can only recrystallize Wink

)

2. How stable is it? : pH, solvent, temp etc. E.g. cathinone racemizes when dissolved in methanol ( I assume the same holds true for the methylated species) but is, for example, IPA ok? I've heard that the freebase polymerizes under certain conditions. What are these conditions and how to avoid them? For example, is extracting with DCM ok? I've also heard that only mineral salts are stable e.g. one can have HCl salt but not citrate? What about sulphates?

3. Suppose one ended up with cat HCl and some (unreacted) pfed HCl. What would be a good way to separate the two? The Merck quotes CHCl3/pet as a solvent pair for (-) cat HCl. Given that pfed HCl is soluble in CHCl3 (although very slightly), it can theoretically contaminate the recrystallized cat.

Any relevant refs/links would be greatly appreciated. Very Happy

Lyral · Fri May 27, 2005 3:48 am

hello!

most of your questions should bee answered here:
https://www.synthetikal.com/Rhodiums_pdfs/chemistry/methcathinone.txt

well maybe you also want more detailed information like i do...
after studying rhodiums archive and having strange dreams 2x times i finally would like to pass my questions over to you... here is (in short) what my imaginary friend told me: recently he had serious problems with cyclization of cathinone (not methcat.) when trying to cook it out of bromopropiophenone (very nasty stuff) diss. in DCM + excess of ammonia in 99% EtOH at low temp.--> he converted nearly all of the bromoketone, but was only able to isolate <20% product of unknown purity, in exchange a huge load of a nice yellow-orange waxy-crystalline mass was obtained (smelling very sweet and aromatic, sometimes dark red in color, its very very sticky too)

well here you find structure images of this dihydropyrazine product
https://www.synthetikal.com/Rhodiums_pdfs/chemistry/cathinone.html
as you can see its like a schiff base of itself Smile

i copied this part from the first linked page:
--------------------------------------------------
Date: 1997/06/28

Despite a recent post to the contrary by Anonymous Artical, there is an
easy-to-find academic article with relevant info on CAT cyclization:

Berrang-BD; Lewin-AH; and Carroll-FI: "Enantiomeric
alpha-aminopropiophenone (Cathinone): Preparation and investigation."
J. Org. Chem. 47 (1982): 2643-2647.

Since there is no academic info on methcathinone (aka CAT), it appears that
other posters on the WWW/Usenet have extrapolated the info from this
article on cathinone to methcathinone. This artcle contains info on the
chemical conditions under which (----)cathinone is unstable, and will
racemize & dimerize(cyclize), and under what chemical conditions
(----)cathinone is stable. It also has info on the 'yellow' cyclization
product, 3,6-dimethyl-2,5-diphenylpyrazine of cathinone. Presumably the
cyclization product from methcathinone is
1N,3,4N,6-tetramethyl-2,5-diphenylpyrazine.

For those of you who can read technical German the article:
Gabriel-S. "Wandlungen der aminoketone" Chem. Ber. 41 (1908): 1127-1156.
has a more detailed chemical description of the cyclization of cathinone
(alpha-aminopropiophenone) (see esp. pp.1146ff).
====
Date: 1997/02/01
Cathinone and Methcathinone both form bright orange cyclization products
when in the free base form and sometimes even in basic solution.
Chloroform and 1,1,1 TCE however are notable solvents where the bases are
stable over extended periods.

Moreover, both drugs do not form stable acid salts with anything but
mineral acids. (although ascorbic acid would be interesting experiment,
since epinepherine is stable as ascorbate)

Thus follows an easy way of characterizing yield without self
administration or complicated testing. Simply take some of the base before
final preparation of salt and put it on a white bowl in a warm place. The
relative level of bright orange cyclo product shows the relative yield of
the synthesis.

Note that the cyclo products are not psychoactive, nor are they easily
reverted back to their original amino-ketone forms.
Also, the cyclo product smells sickly sweet.
------------------------------------------
i know that cathinone can be made by melting the bromoketone with potassium-phtalimide which already has as a protection of the amino group
now finally my question

: does a cyclization product of methcathinone really exist ? if so, i would like to know its structure
i know that N-methyl anthranilic acid methyl ester (dimethyl-a.) is used in fine perfumery as a substitute for MA (methyl anthranilate) because it does not form schiff bases with aldehydes... i would be very grateful for a clearing answer !
i have some more questions about cat-chemistry but i think thats enough for now Rolling Eyes

PS. im so happy that this site and the archive are online, life makes much more sense now, many thx to u out there especially @ synthetika Surprised