I quote from "Encyclopedia of Reagents for Organic Synthesis" under the sodium dithionite heading:
"Oximes to Amines. Oximes are readily reduced to amines by sodium dithionite. Substituted phenethylamines are key intermediates required for the synthesis of isoquinoline derivatives. They are readily obtained from aryl alkyl ketones by nitrosation of the alkyl group followed by the reduction of the resulting oxime derivatives by sodium dithionite."
The illustration they have on the page is an example of the reaction and it looks to me as if it's a phenethylamine but with the cathinone structure (has a carbonyl group at the benzyl position).
Anyway, Rhodium, you've been looking quite some time for an OTC method of reducing those products--I forget the name for them--formed from the reaction of an alkylnitrite and an acetophenone or a propiophenone in HCl-saturated solvent. The reduction of these--depending on the ketone used--would yield g-aminoacetophenones or a-aminopropiophenones as products, I think (sorry, this cat's a little rusty).
The cool thing is that sodium dithionite is available as a pool chemical (again, I think). But I could be wrong.
The bad part about all this is that the reference seems to have a typo in it:
Pictet, A.; Gams, A. CB (journal?) 1909 (Year? It's in bold type), 42 (Volume, I guess), 2943 (page number, I think).
That year can't be right. It must be a typo. Perhaps it's 1999. Who knows? Somebee care to look it up?
I wonder if sodium dithionite could be applied to the reduction of regular oximes? Hmm. Maybe.
