Thiopental

[Acrolein]

Seeing as we have nothing on this, I'd like to discuss a chemical known as Thiopental.

Thiopental is a barbiturate, used for lethal injection and weakening of mental defenses (eg. a truth serum of sorts) during interrogation.

The intriguing part of this drug is the number of uses it has. My professor was talking about the GABAA and that's how I wound up thinking about this. There is scarcely little on preparation and precautions in synthesis (aside from Wikipedia which no-one trusts).

The IUPAC is
sodium 5-ethyl-5(2-methylpentyl)-4,6-dioxo-1,4,5,6-tetrahydropyrimidine-2-thiolate and the chemical formula is C11H17N2NaO2S, and it is listed as (if I remember) a schedule III drug.

The number of uses it has is a double-edged sword, seeing as it's even used as an incapacitation agent.

(Posted this in hopes of educating others)

[Enkidu]

You'll want to change all of the < and > to [ and ] so that your subscript works.

From Rhodium (http://www.erowid.org/archive/rhodium/chemistry/barbiturates.html),

Thiopentone. (Pentothal, Intraval.) 34 g of clean metallic sodium are dissolved in 1 liter of dry ethanol. To this solution add 130 g of ethyl-1-methyl butyl malonic ester. This mixture is stirred, 60 g of powdered thiourea is added and the whole is refluxed for lO hours. Remove the alcohol by distilling under reduced pressure, dissolve the residue with water and acidify with hydrochloric acid. The precipitate is filtered, washed with cold water and dissolved in a minimum amount of 5% aqueous ammonia solution. A rapid current of carbon dioxide is passed through the solution and the resulting Thiopentone is filtered from the solution, washed with cold water, recrystallized from 95% ethanol using decolorizing charcoal, if necessary. Mp: 158-159°C Dosage: 100 to 150 mg.

Synthesis of Malonic Acid

100 g of powdered chloroacetic acid is treated with 150 g of broken ice and dissolved in 125 g of caustic soda (33 1/4%) solution. The solution should be made exactly neutral, if it is not already (this refers to the mixture). After neutralizing, add 69 g of 98% potassium cyanide in 130 g of water, which has been warmed to 40°C. An hour after the addition, the mixture is slowly warmed to 100°C and held at this temp for an hour. Cool slowly to 25°C and add another 125 g of 33 1/4% caustic soda solution. Slowly heat the mixture to 100°C and hold at that temp until no more ammonia is evolved (2 to 3 hours). To test: add sodium hydroxide solution to a sample and boil. If no ammonia evolves, then the reaction is complete. When the reaction is complete, the solution is cooled, acidified with dilute HCl acid, and carefully evaporated to complete dryness on a water bath. The residue is powdered, extracted repeatedly with ether, and the ether is removed by gently heating on a water bath. You may purify further by dissolving in the minimum amount of caustic soda solution, boiling with decolorizing carbon, acidifying and extracting with ether, as before. Yield: 95 g, mp: 132°C.

[tmp]

It's used in lethal injections because it's a rapidly acting anesthetic. It was
used on me during surgery. I can tell you that unlike other drugs you don't
feel this one "creeping" up on you. I watched the anesthetist inject it into my
IV and the next thing I know I woke up in recovery.


OT, I know but this demonstrates, once again, the lies about chemicals:

Currently, there are scumbag lawyers challenging the use of lethal injection as
"cruel and unusual" claiming that their asshole clients feel pain during the
execution. BULLSHIT ! IMHO, they're getting off easy ! Let's go back to
1 1/2" hemp rope and hang their fucking lawyers with them !

[Hirudinea]

Currently, there are scumbag lawyers challenging the use of lethal injection as
"cruel and unusual" claiming that their asshole clients feel pain during the
execution. BULLSHIT ! IMHO, they're getting off easy ! Let's go back to
1 1/2" hemp rope and hang their fucking lawyers with them !

Use gas, pure nitrogen would do the job and not be in the least bit painful or dangerous to the staff.
As for suffering I agree, hell I say burn them in a pool of ethenol, it burns with a nearly invisible flame I hear, on live tv, they get what they deserve and their ilk get a good object lesson.
Sorry this had notrhing to do with the topic. :o

[Charles Owlen Picket]

Barbituric acid is a fairly easy snyth from what I've read. Barbituric acid, C4H4N2O3, looks fairly familiar doesn't it? But it's a Hydurilic acid + Nitric acid lab (Ethyl malonate and Urea, using sodium ethoxide as a condensing agent). Five basic chemicals; that anyone who can turn out a fairly finely controlled clathrate could do just as fast. Bringing this to E&W related stuff; if you are familiar with CHNO explos then you will see what I'm talking about if you play with ChemOffice and model this thing. I thought it was interesting, anyway. :)