Abstract

Methylamphetamine is an addictive stimulant drug that strongly activates certain systems in the brain. It is closely related chemically to amphetamine, but the central nervous system effects of methamphetamine are greater. There is much interest in methylamphetamine among scientists and therefore the synthesizes of methylamphetamine and its metabolites are carried out on a large scale in chemical laboratories. Globally, ephedrine and pseudoephedrine are the main precursors used in the "meth" synthesis. One of the most widely applied illegal laboratory conversions of ephedrine or pseudoephedrine to methamphetamine involveS first converting the ephedrine/pseudoephedrine to its chloro-analog by reaction with SOCl2, POCl3, PCl3, or PCl5. Then, the chloro-intermediate is hydrogenated over a palladium or platinum catalyst to yield methamphetamine. Unfortunately, the manufacture of chloro-intermediates of methamphetamine requires many chemical reaction steps and large amounts of organic solvents with varying degrees of toxicity and purity. Moreover, large aliquote of liquid wasteare generated and also solvent wastes are released in the air as volatile organic compounds.Looking at the interest of these syntheses from aspects of sustainable development, environmentally friendly solutions are desirable. Therefore, this study focuses on the development of modified method to the synthesis of chloroephedrine compounds which are more eco-friendly. The scientific novelty of obtained results refers to the development of an improved method to produce commercially unavailable chloroephedrine and chloropseudoephedrine as important compounds in many scientific areas such as forensic,analytical chemistry or toxicology. Because of the many advantages which characterize the modified method such as short reaction time, reduction of energy consumption, reduction of toxic solvent use, this method brings an innovative potential in the range of Green Chemistry.

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