Identification of N-Acetylmethamphetamine in a Sample of Illicitly Synthesized Methamphetamine

Abstract

Analysis of illicit methamphetamine samples revealed the presence of a hitherto unreported impurity. This was identified as N-acetylmethamphetamine by synthesis and GC-MS. This impurity is believed to arise by transesterification of methamphetamine during reflux with propyl acetate. Other circumstantial evidence and intelligence data indicate that propyl acetate was used to increase yields of methamphetamine hydrochloride by azeotropic removal of water remaining after salt formation with aqueous hydrochloric acid.

New impurity profiles of recent Australian imported ‘ice’: Methamphetamine impurity profiling and the identification of (pseudo)ephedrine and Leuckart specific marker compounds

“…According to the first fact, it is rather possible that the small amount of compound V is not a by-product of the synthetic reactions but a side product of non-synthesis related processes. Conn et al [25] proposed that Nacetylmethamphetamine, they detected in illicit methamphetamine, was produced by transesterification of methamphetamine during reflux with propyl acetate, which was used to increase yields of methamphetamine hydrochloride. The fact that the presences of compounds V and N-acetylmethamphetamine (VI) in the 'ice' samples are correlated closely to each other may support a similar origin of V. This compound was also found by Puthaviriyakorn et al [5] in Ya Ba tablets, which are well known to be produced from ephedrine [26].…”

Contribution of thermal desorption and liquid–liquid extraction for identification and profiling of impurities in methamphetamine by gas chromatography–mass spectrometry

“…N-acetylephedrine, N-formyl MA, and cis-and trans-1,2-dimethyl-3-phenylaziridine (AZ) were synthesized in our laboratory as previously reported [27][28][29][30][31][32]. All other chemicals were of analytical grade and were purchased from Wako Pure Chemical Co.…”

Analysis of the impurities in the methamphetamine synthesized by three different methods from ephedrine and pseudoephedrine

“…cis(trans)-1,2-Dimethyl-3-phenylaziridine [15], chloroephedrine (also known as (+)-chloropseudoephedrine, synthesized from (À)-ephedrine, and the mixture of (+)-chloropseudoephedrine and (À)-chloroephedrine from (+)-pseudoephedrine) [10,15], 3,4-dimethyl-5-phenyloxazolidine [17], N-formylmethamphetamine [18], cis(trans)-3,4-dimethyl 5-phenyl-2-oxazolidone [18], N-acetylmethamphetamine [18,19] and methamphetamine dimer [20] were synthesized for the present work. 1-Phenyl-2-propanone was synthesized by the oxidation of 1-phenyl-2-propanol with Jones reagent (mixture of CrO 3 , H 2 SO 4 and water).…”