Good morning oh my dear friends!
Ever heard of Graf-Ritter reaction? There are many variants to it (AFAIUTFSE'd, the classic one uses HCN), but the one you're about to read is thus far the best. It was submitted to HyperLab forum (http://www.voy.com/12987/)
(http://www.voy.com/12987/) by our dear friend and comrade Zhenya aka ChemTrip.
It uses MeCN in H2SO4 to make amphetamines directly from allylbenzenes, although the yields are low (circa 30-35%)
(https://www.thevespiary.org/rhodium/Rhodium/hive/hiveboard/picproxie_docs/000262203-file_chdi.gif)
Well this process's applicability is certainly narrowed by the need for strongly acidic conditions, esp. during hydrolysis - however, in PiHKAL/DON Shulgin mentions that DON's N-formyl derivative was easily hydrolized w/3 N HCl. I don't know if the same will bee true for acetamides, but evidently methoxies may survive where amides don't. I also wonder if there are any other ways to cleave that amide bond...
Whatever - hope you liked it.
Antoncho
Para-haloamphetamines should have a subjective pharmacology between amphetamine and MDA in doses of ~100-150mg, but I don't reccommend human experimentation.
Edit: Also see Post 280053 (https://www.thevespiary.org/talk/index.php?topic=6870.msg28005300#msg28005300)
(Rhodium: "Why the Ritter Reaction Fails for Safrole", Chemistry Discourse)
Ritter in the patent prefers sulfuric/sulphonic acids, but does mention use of phosphoric acid, SnCl2, and BF3. None of which will do asarone any good. :( HCN, short or long chain nitriles will work; cyanogen, even cyanamide. Nitriles formed by rearrangement of Hofmann isonitriles, (from an amine with chloroform and lye, Post 261573 (https://www.thevespiary.org/talk/index.php?topic=9576.msg26157300#msg26157300)
(halfapint: "Re: HCN, NaOH and BzCN", Methods Discourse)) save the HCN/NaCN handling problems.
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