Dihydrocodeine from Codeine

[gotxp]

SWIM understand if you take say pure codeine phosphate in water.. thus, codeine in the presence of a weak acid.

then hydrogenated it you would get Dihydrocodeine... which is 1.5 to 2 times more potent than codeine without the ceiling effect.. This seems to swim like a useful procedure to carry out.

however, although swim has a decent chemistry background it has been a bit of a while for specific reactions... now swim knows this reaction involves the use of hydrogen gas... but, does anyone know the specific of this (or if another swim has made a tek, couldnt find any on search..except ones that kinda complicated.. as they were more part of a greater reaction of another opiate)..

so, would swim just have to bubble hydrogen gas through it in the presence of acid... or, could it be done with hydrogen peroxide, and a catalyist to cause the hydrogen to be released?

thanks,

[gotxp]

or is swim gonna need to find palladium

[gotxp]

meh... swims gonna scrap this idea.... but, the theoretics are interesting enough

[Solinari]

This comes from Rhodium's Nearly Quantitative Conversion of Codeine to Hydrocodone and it's just the first part of the conversion. Personally it may as well be in another language, but if some one else knows what it's saying then it might be useful

Dihydrocodeine from Codeine

In a Parr hydrogenator jar, codeine (2.0g, 6.7 mmol) and 10% Pd/C (200mg) were combined in ethyl acetate (75ml). This mixture was hydrogenated at room temp at 37 psi for 2h. During this time, the hydrogen pressure dectreased to 34 psi within 30 min, was increased back to 37 psi, and thereafter remained constant for the duration of the reaction. The mixture was filtered through Celite, the filter cake washed with 2x10ml ethyl acetate, the resulting solution stripped of solvent using a rotary evaporator by high vacuum. The product foamed considerably upon initial application of high vacuum, so care was taken not to lose any product. Leaving the product on high vacuum overnight afforded a white, crunchy, crystalline solid (2.0g (99.3%), mp 113-4°C [lit. 112-3°C]).

[gotxp]

yeah, basically its saying it uses the palladium as a catalyst (otherwise a lot of pressure would be needed).. but, it causes the hydrogen to saturate with the double bonds... so in the codeine, instead of it having a carbon ring with double bonds and one hydrogen.. it gets single bonds and two hydrogens... hence dihydrocodine... actually if u could get that u could then oxidize it turning the oh alcohol group into a double bonded O resulting in the ketone of it --> dihydrocodone.. aka hydrocodone

but, yeah... its an easy process with the right stuff.. but without the platinum row metal to act as a catalyst you would need a ton of pressure to get the hydrogen to saturate .. i mean swim could hunt for some... but has kinda lost interest in chasing it.. thanks for the post though!!