Reduction With Palladium--Ephedrine and Phenypropanolamine with HCl (Gas) Reduced to Methamphetamine and Amphetamine:
Metzger, Bases of the 1-Phenyl-2-aminopropane Series, German Pat. No. 968,545, Mar. 6, 1958; C.A. 54:7654b (1960). 1-Phenyl-2-methylamino-propan-1-ols
were catalytically hydrogenated in the presence of palladium, glacial acetic acid and dry hydrohalide gas.
60 g d,l-ephedrine hydrochloride in 600 cc glacial acetic acid containing 30 HCl gas was hydrogenated at 90° in the presence of 50 g palladium black
(note: this is a very high catalyst ratio), the catalyst separated, the solvent evaporated, and the residue made alkaline to give 95%
d,l-deoxynorephedrine. Similarly prepared were D-deoxyephedrine (d-methamphetamine) and D-deoxynorephedrine sulfate (d-amphetamine).
Note that there is evidently an error in the Chemical Abstracts translation. Reduction of ephedrine would be expected to give deoxyephedrine;
reduction of phenylpropanolamine (norephedrine) would be expected to give deoxynorephedrine. |