Decarboxylation of Tryptophan

[1ce]

;D I never realized this thread moved!

Thethinice: acetophenone is widely available. I don't think there's an easy route to pure DCM even distilling commercial products.

Chloroform synthethis doesn't involve much more than a distillation, there's lots of info about it out in the web.

(Been wondering when benzyme would come say hello)

 

[thethinice]

Cool cool. Lots are paranoid about ordering solvents online. Most of these people seem to be UK-based.

I love when benzyme says anything. I wish I could go to like Cornell University and just pester chem profs there.

 

[1ce]

xD there's reason for paranoia, solvents arent generally a good reason. Lemme tell you about the things I've ordered...

 

[downwardsfromzero]

Dmt should be fine in aq. Hcl, it is tryptamine you should be worried about. I tried gassing with CO2, the results were unfortunately unhelpful, I had no visible precipitate drop out of the solution which caused me a bit of extra work undoing my mistake.

[...]

Backtracking a bit here, been offline for weeks.

1ce, it seems you introduced the CO2 here in gaseous form - have you ever tried the dry ice method? There have been favourable reports, at least for precipitating NMT, and a patent regarding this method suggests it works also for tryptamine itself. Of course this would likely be of little use if acetophenone is your solvent. Decomposing the resulting carbamate would be something of a problem, refluxing in glycol with KOH isn't all that good for tryptamines, I would wager.

 

[1ce]

Nah, distillation works very well, HCL gassing works well too, but it's beyond the scope of kitchen chem. Also consider that most of the new members here are still developing skills following directions, and they like to go big.

Perhaps the acetophenone could be distilled off, and the remaining tar extracted with 10% NaOH. Then precipitated from a different dry solvent. Dry ice may work, I've never been a fan of working with high pressure systems though.

 

[downwardsfromzero]

Dry ice may work, I've never been a fan of working with high pressure systems though.

Dry ice isn't exactly high pressure, you just chuck lumps of the stuff into the pot. It's a pretty kitchen chem compatible approach. It also works at "slightly above atmospheric pressure", apparently.

Aspirin works as well, if you want a melatonin analog without the methoxy group

 

[1ce]

It's only low pressure until you add heat.

 

[MaNoMaNoM]

Never had chemistry class unfortunately, but maybe someone else here can find this useful
(And kindly translate any breakthroughs into layman's terms for the armature enthusiasts!)

decarboxilating tryptophan thread

 

[1ce]

Never had chemistry class unfortunately, but maybe someone else here can find this useful
(And kindly translate any breakthroughs into layman's terms for the armature enthusiasts!)

decarboxilating tryptophan thread

It looks like alot of speculation from people that have never done it, or failed to achieve tryptamine during their experiments. The problem with tryptamine chemistry is that it's prone to fail, no-one ever tries it, and everyone else just speculates while blindly ignoring obvious issues (cyclization).

 

[thethinice]

Indeed is such a synthesis ever-speculative, at least for what one may (rightfully or wrongfully) name the clandestine chemist.
Many would have it that no chemical is ever isomerized, racemized, or non-specifically acylated. What a world it would be, Alas! it is not so.
Rhetorically and satirically I pose this question to the secret chemist who complains of a racemized product: Does it still f*ck you up, tho?

 

[benzyme]

there is no racemized/isomerized byproduct, because after decarboxylation, there is no chirality.

and to answer your rhetorical query, no.
central activity is, for the most part, a function of active-site binding, and the binding affinity is largely a function of the shape/composition and orientation of the molecule at the binding site.

 

[thethinice]

I'm just saying many (including myself) would love to, and many (not including myself) try to ignore the nuance in chemistry, to assume all to be black and white. And Benzyme, I almost feel bad you answered that question. It was only a joke. Interesting to know the answer to, but still a question I would never genuinely ask haha. Only trying to make light of an all-too-common view that can be seen in the surprising eagerness many (especially young folk) have to try "research" chemicals and the like.

"We make 4-Fluoroamphetamine."

"Well, does it f*ck you up?"

"Probably, just look at it! It resembles amphetamine! Granted it may have a thousand unforeseen consequences in the complex chemistry of the body. . . But we're pretty sure it f*cks you up."

"I'll take 30 grams."

Just that whole "Will it get me high?" thing. Ignorance. "Will it inhibit certain enzymatic actions in my liver?" may be a better question. "Does it, in studies of chronic usage, cause organ damage in mice?" Many of the good questions about many compounds that will "f*ck you up" cannot be answered, at least not yet or not fully.