Dextromethorphan---->Levomethorphan?

[Ganja Joe]

Dextromethorphan is a cough suppressant, Levomethorphan is an "isomer" or the mirror image of D-Meth.

D-meth is a non-narcotic, but L-meth is narcotic.

This is what I was told in mammalian physiology class back in college.


Hypothetically, could one convert D-meth into L-meth? I'm sure we all know sometimes people illegally convert sudafed into methamphetamine (and I would never recommend that anyone do such)... I was curious if there's a conversion process for DM into LM (and I'm sure that this is not a good thing to do either). From a purely scientific curiosity, I'm just wondering how easily SWIY could make such a conversion from a common bottle of cough medicine? My guess is that unless SWIY is a chemist, not likely.

Have any of you heard of Levomethorphan? Are there any meds out there that have L-meth as their primary ingredient? There might be, I may just not know the generic or brand name of the product.

Just curious.

[trptamene]

when u say DM and Dmeth are you talking about dextromethophan?

You through methamphetamine in the mix in the middle so its kinda confusing.

If you are showing an anology to meth a better one would be levmethamphetamine to dexmethamphetamine not (pseudo)eph to dexmethamphetamine.

converting between two chiral centers is not as easy as one might imagine. It involves destruction of the chiral center and then reforming in a racemic process to obtain a theoretical 50% yield (unless one has some type of chiral catalyst/substrate to give high selectivity)

[Orchid_Suspiria]

No he just used people converting sudafed to methamphetamine as an example.SwiGJ was talking about dxm being the mirror image of an opioid narcotic(swim has read this)and was asking if there was a way to convert it to this at home.

[Ganja Joe]

Sorry for the confustion,

Just curious if theres a way to convert dextromethorphan cough syrup in to the "Levo" form which is supposed to be a narcotic.

[sarbanes]

Originally Posted by Ganja Joe

Sorry for the confustion,

Just curious if theres a way to convert dextromethorphan cough syrup in to the "Levo" form which is supposed to be a narcotic.

Yrd. there probably are several ways to do that, but all of them are more difficult than synthesizing the compound from scratch. You'd perhaps pyrollise with catalyst your DXM (who knows). You could burn it to get to carbon? Point I'm trying to make, there is no way with present technology to change such chirality. It is impossible, period.

heh there must be a lot of levomethorphan product just sitting around, or flushed, assuming they make racemate (when making DXM), and not just the enantiomerically pure dextro.

[Paracelsus]

heh there must be a lot of levomethorphan product just sitting around, or flushed, assuming they make racemate (when making DXM), and not just the enantiomerically pure dextro.

Actually no, the synthesis of DXM can be selective. I don't remember exactly, but I think they start from the right isomer of the precursor (which is an octahydroisoquinoline). Look up the "US Patent x,xxx,xxx - Synthesis of DXM" file in the DXM archive if interested.

But yes, there is no practical way one could convert dextromethorphan to levomethorphan.

[LookingForHer]

No you can't

Can you turn your right hand into your left hand? Maybe cut off a thumb and reattach it to the other side

It's the same thing with chemicals. It doesn't work that way.

[rocksmokinmachine]

dextro - latin for right

levo- latin for left

What SWIY is tryin to do is isolate the left isomer. I am fairly sure it is a difficult process and involves some pretty expensive lab equipment. It is possible though. Chromotographical methods reliably separate these from each other.

[Paracelsus]

While there might be methods to separate levomethorphan from dextromethorphan (given racemethorphan), but the question the original poster was asking is whether it is possible to convert dextro into levo, which it is not.

[kiddgr0tesk]

Dextromethorphan is actualley a partial opioid, what we call a quasi-opioid guys:

Dextromethorphan hydrobromide monohydrate is the methyl ester salt of d-levorphanol, a narcotic analgesic. It is chemically named as 3-methoxy-17-methyl-9(alpha), 13(alpha), 14(alpha)-morphinan hydrobromide monohydrate. DXM occurs as white crystals, is sparingly soluble in water, and freely soluble in alcohol. The drug is dextrorotatory in water (at 20 degrees Celsius, Sodium D-line) with a specific rotation of +27.6 degrees.