Ephedra's Role as a Precursor in the Clandestine Manufacture of Methamphetamine

Abstract

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.

A study of the use of Ephedra in the manufacture of methamphetamine

“…1 clearly illustrates that the alkaloids differ only by the alkylation of the amine and this is carried through in the main reduction product of each pair of diastereoisomers. As expected the tertiary amine pair (À)-methylephedrine and (+)-methylpseudoephedrine yield (+)-N,N-dimethylamphetamine, the secondary amine pair (À)-ephedrine and (+)-pseudoephedrine yield (+)-methamphetamine and the primary amine pair (À)-norephedrine and (+)-norpseudoephedrine yield (+)-amphetamine [4].…”

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

“…Cantrell et al [12] have identified naphthalene compounds as impurities in methamphetamine synthesized by the hydriodic acid/red phosphorus method. Along with the naphthalene peaks (1 and 2), three unidentified peaks (8)(9)(10) were detected in two of the Nagai samples (N5 and N6), but most of these analytes disappeared after crystallization in other samples (N1-N4). After excluding troublesome and non-characteristic peaks, 10 peaks (1-10) were selected and were applied for the elucidation of the synthetic methods (Fig.…”

“…They can be classified mainly into two categories according to the precursors, 1-phenyl-2-propanone [4][5][6][7] and ephedrine compounds [8][9][10][11][12][13][14]. Both are generally used as precursors, and the latter is more widely used in the clandestine laboratories.…”

Impurity profiling of dexamphetamine sulfate by cyclodextrin‐modified microemulsion electrokinetic chromatography

“…Dexamphetamine is a psychostimulant drug which is used for the treatment of the attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder of children [1,2] and narcolepsy [3]. Dexamphetamine can be synthesized by various methods, for example, starting from chiral precursors such as 1R,2S-(À)-norephedrine or 1S,2S-(1)-norpseudoephedrine [4,5]. Alternatively dexamphetamine can be obtained from racemic amphetamine synthesized from phenylacetone by Leuckart reaction or by reduction of phenylacetone oxime [6,7] followed by fractional crystallization using L-(1)-tartaric acid [8].…”