#56 Dmcpa; 2-(2,5-dimethoxy-4-methylphenyl)cyclopropylamine

SYNTHESIS: To a solution of 25 g 2,5-dimethoxy-4-methylbenzaldehyde (see the recipe for 2C-D for the preparation) and 29.2 g malonic acid in 50 mL anhydrous pyridine, there was added 2 mL piperidine and this was heated on the steam bath for several h. The mixture was added to a solution of 125 mL concentrated HCl in 500 mL H2O at 0 deg C, and the solid product that was formed was removed by filtration, and washed with H2O. Recrystallization from aqueous EtOH yielded 31 g 2,5-dimethoxy-4-methylcinnamic acid with a mp of 163-166 deg C. Anal. (C12H14O4) C,H.

In a cooled high-pressure reaction vessel there was placed a suspension of 30 g 2,5-dimethoxy-4-methylcinnamic acid in 150 mL liquid isobutene. This was treated dropwise with 0.6 mL concentrated H2SO4, then sealed and brought to room temperature. After 48 h shaking, the vessel was cooled again to -10 deg C, opened, and poured into 200 mL of 10% Na2CO3. This was extracted with hexane, the pooled extracts washed with H2O, and the solvent removed to yield 17.0 g of (t)-butyl 2,5-dimethoxy-4-methylcinnamate as an amber oil. Anal. (C16H22O4) C,H.

The cyclopropane ester was prepared by the reaction between 16 g (t)-butyl 2,5-dimethoxy-4-methylcinnamate and dimethylsulfoxonium methylide, prepared as described in the Kaiser reference in the acknowledgements. Hydrolysis of this ester gave 53% trans-2-(2,5-dimethoxy-4-methylphenyl)cyclopropanecarboxylic acid which, after recrystallization from a MeOH/H2O mixture, had a mp of 136 deg C. Anal. (C13H16O4) C,H.

A suspension of 4 g of trans-2-(2,5-dimethoxy-4-methylphenyl)cyclopropanecarboxylic acid in an equal volume of H2O, was treated with sufficient acetone to effect complete solution. This was cooled to 0 deg C and there was added, first, 2.0 g triethylamine in 35 mL acetone, followed by the slow addition of 2.5 g ethyl chloroformate in 10 mL acetone. This was stirred for 0.5 h, and then there was added a solution of 1.7 g NaN3 in 6 mL H2O, dropwise. After 1 h stirring at 0 deg C, the mixture was quenched by pouring into H2O at 0 deg C. The separated oil was extracted with Et2O, and extracts dried with anhydrous MgSO4. Removal of the solvent under vacuum gave a residue of the azide, which was dissolved in 10 mL anhydrous toluene. This solution was heated on the steam bath until the nitrogen evolution was complete, and the removal of the solvent under vacuum gave a residue of crude isocyanate as an amber oil. This intermediate isocyanate was dissolved in 5.4 g benzyl alcohol and the reaction mixture was heated on the steam bath for 6 h. The excess benzyl alcohol was removed by distillation, yielding trans-2-(2,5-dimethoxy-4-methylphenyl)carbobenzoxyamidocyclopropane as a crystalline residue. This was recrystallized from an EtOAc/hexane mixture to give 6.13 g of a crystalline product with a mp of 107-108 deg C. Anal. (C20H23NO4) C,H,N.

A solution of 1.5 g trans-2-(2,5-dimethoxy-4-methylphenyl)carbobenzoxyamidocyclopropane in 120 mL MeOH containing 200 mg 10% Pd/C was shaken under hydrogen gas at 35 psig for 45 min. The solution was filtered through celite, and a sufficient amount of a solution of 5% HCl in EtOH was added to the filtrate to make it acidic. Removal of all volatiles under vacuum gave a solid residue that was recrystallized from an EtOH/ether mixture to give 0.98 g of trans-2-(2,5-dimethoxy-4-methylphenyl)cyclopropylamine hydrochloride (DMCPA) as white crystals with a mp of 210-211 deg C.

DOSAGE: 15 - 20 mg.

DURATION: 4 - 8 h.

QUALITATIVE COMMENTS: (with 10 mg) The effects were quite real at an hour, but very hard to define. Nothing left at four hours, but my sleep was filled with bizarre and colorful dreams. Something was still working somewhere, at some level.

(with 20 mg) I found myself lightheaded, and the thinness seemed to be, rather remarkably, on the left side of my brain. The experience was flighty. I was reminded of the aura that has been described preceding a convulsion. I was decoupled from my experience and from my environment. Not all of the control is there, and I am uncomfortable. But in an hour, there is complete control again, and I can relax my conscious guard which allows an easy plus three. With this, there was easy fantasy, erotic, quite a bit of movement in the visual field, and mild anorexia. The residual hyperreflexive thinness is largely gone, and not at all worrisome. This stuff is complicated, with a little too much of the physical. The next day was without any residues at all.

EXTENSIONS AND COMMENTARY: Most of the human trials took place in the fifteen to twenty milligram range. Several reports describe some muscular tremor, especially in the earliest part of the experience, but this never seemed to be a concern. The efforts to lock imagery to music were not too successful. All of these clinical studies were conducted on the trans-compound, but on the racemic mixture. This has been resolved into the two optical isomers, but they have not been compared in man. The cis-mixture is unknown.

This material is intimately related to tranylcypromine, a clinically proven antidepressant. This drug is a known monoamine oxidase inhibitor, and it is certainly possible that some of this pharmacological property might be found in DMCPA if it were to be looked for. The hints of physical toxicity at the higher doses assayed might suggest some such activity.

This compound, DMCPA, was modeled directly after the structure of DOM, with the 2,5-dimethoxy-4-methyl substitution pattern. Another analogue of tranylcypromine, similarly modeled, is 3,4,5-trimethoxytranylcypromine, or trans-2-(3,4,5-trimethoxyphenyl)cyclopropylamine (TMT). It has been evaluated at levels of only 13 milligrams orally, and at this dose there were no hints of central activity.

#57 DME; 3,4-DIMETHOXY-beta-HYDROXYPHENETHYLAMINE

SYNTHESIS: To a solution of 10.2 g 3,4-dimethoxybenzaldehyde in 10 mL EtOH, cooled to 0 deg C, there was added a solution of 4.2 g KCN in 40 mL H2O. With good stirring, there was slowly added 10 mL concentrated HCl (caution: HCN is evolved) and the two-phase reaction mixture was allowed to continue stirring until there was the spontaneous formation of crystals. After a few days standing, these were removed by filtration and well washed with H2O. All was recrystallized from 75 mL of 50% MeOH and air dried to provide 6.95 g of the cyanohydrin 3,4-dimethoxy-a-hydroxyphenylacetonitrile. The mp was 104-106 deg C, which can be increased to 109 deg C by recrystallization from benzene.

A well-stirred suspension of 4.7 g LAH in 500 mL anhydrous Et2O was brought up to a gentle reflux, and 4.7 g 3,4-dimethoxy-a-hydroxyphenylacetonitrile was leached in from a Soxhlet thimble, over the course of 3 h. The color of the ether solution progressed from yellow to green, to an eventual blue. The reflux was maintained for 16 h. After cooling again, there was added (carefully) a solution of 27 g H2SO4 in 500 mL H2O. The completely clear two-phase mixture was separated, and the aqueous phase treated with 87 g potassium sodium tartrate. The addition of 25% NaOH brought the pH >9, and this phase was extracted with 4x100 mL CH2Cl2. Removal of all the organic solvents under vacuum gave a residue that was part oil and part solid. This was extracted with 4x50 mL boiling Et2O, the extracts pooled, and saturated with anhydrous HCl gas. The 0.95 g of pale-yellow crystals that formed were removed by filtration, and finely ground under 5 mL CH3CN. There remained, after refiltration and air drying, 0.85 g of 3,4-dimethoxy-beta-hydroxyphenethylamine hydrochloride, DME, with a mp of 170-172 deg C.

DOSAGE: greater than 115 mg.

DURATION: unknown.

QUALITATIVE COMMENTS: (with 115 mg) I was faintly nauseous about an hour after taking the compound, and perhaps I was more alert than usual in the evening. Substantially no effects.

EXTENSIONS AND COMMENTARY: The rationale for exploring the beta-hydroxylated phenethylamines, especially those with oxygens at the biologically important 3- and 4-positions, has already been presented. Norepinephrine is a beta-hydroxylated phenethylamine with oxygens at these two ring positions. With DME, these are masked as two methyl ethers, and the initials DME stand for 3,4-dimethoxyphenyl-beta-ethanolamine. This is an alternate name for 3,4-dimethoxy-beta-hydroxyphenethylamine.

An exactly analogous compound is 3,4-methylenedioxy-beta-ethanolamine, where the masking is done with the biologically more fragile methylenedioxy ether. Originally I had called this compound MDE (methylenedioxyethanolamine) but that code has been, since 1975, used exclusively for 3,4-methylenedioxy-N-ethylamphetamine, which is a recipe all by itself. Under the discussion of members of the BOX series, there is a methylenedioxyphenethylamine with a methoxyl group at the beta-position, and it is called BOH (q.v.). There, a reasonable code name for this specific compound is given, namely BOHH. RBOS stands for the beta-oxygen function on a phenethylamine; this is the heart of the BOX family. The RHS which is the third letter of BOHH stands for the free hydroxyl group. And the final RHS is for homopiperonylamine (which is the trivial name for the compound without the hydroxyl group). BOHH, or 3,4-methylenedioxy-beta-hydroxyphenethylamine, or 3,4-methylenedioxy-beta-ethanolamine, has also be assayed in man at up to 100 milligrams without any effects, and must be considered, as of now, to be inactive centrally. The possible toxic roles of beta-ethanolamines as potential adrenolytic agents, have been discussed in the BOHD recipe. And beware of the use of the code name MDE in the very old literature. It might be this BOHH compound.