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In Experiment 1, rats were chronically infused with insulin (2.7, 27, or 270 ng/hr) or 0.9% saline into the ventromedial (VMH), medial perifornical (PF), or lateral (LH) hypothalamus. VMH infusions of insulin caused a significant, dose-dependent decrease in food intake and body weight; PF infusion of insulin was less effective, but significant; whereas LH infusions of insulin were ineffective. In Experiment 2, rats were chronically infused with insulin (0.54 ng/hr) or 0.9% saline into the VMH, paraventricular (PVN), or posterior (PN) hypothalamic nucleus. Subjects that received VMH or PN infusions of insulin failed to regain weight lost as a result of surgery even 2 weeks after infusion; subjects that received PVN infusions of insulin regained their preoperative weights faster than did controls. All of the groups that received insulin significantly increased their daytime food intake during the infusion period and decreased their night food intake slightly; 24-hr food intake remained unchanged.

In February 1993, an illicit, fully operational methamphetamine laboratory was confiscated in Vacaville, California. In addition to seizing ephedrine and pseudoephedrine tablets, approximately 1.3 kg of ephedra was found at the lab site. Ephedra (also referred to as Ma Huang) is a plant material that contains numerous alkaloids, including 1-ephedrine and d-pseudoephedrine. Ephedra products are currently sold over-the-counter in various forms such as tablets and capsules. Quantitative analysis reveals that some ephedra capsules and tablets contain as much methamphetamine precursors as a synthetic 25 mg ephedrine tablet. Because of this, ephedra is becoming a “substitute precursor” for ephedrine compounds for use in the illicit manufacture of methamphetamine. Ephedra samples were reacted with hydriodic acid and red phosphorus in much the same way as ephedrine would be reacted in order to produce methamphetamine. The progress of the reduction was monitored by obtaining aliquots of the reaction solution at time intervals followed by analyses using GC/IRD and GC/MS. An analysis of the final product of the reaction indicated that d-metham-phetamine, d-amphetamine and d-N,N-dimethylamphetamine had been produced as a result of the reduction of ephedra. The latter two compounds result from the reduction of norephedrine and N-methylephedrine, respectively (also present in ephedra), and therefore represent markers for this synthetic methodology.

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