A practical total synthesis of cocaine's enantiomers

Acute intranasal intoxication with mercuric chloride taken accidently instead of cocaine - A case report

CONTEXT

Mercuric chloride (mercury (II) chloride) belongs to inorganic mercury compounds characterized by good water solubility and associated high toxicity. The paper describes an unusual case of intranasal intoxication with corrosive sublimate confused with cocaine by a young male.

CASE REPORT

Intranasal administration of corrosive sublimate caused severe local symptoms of chemical burn within the nasal cavity. From the 2nd day the patient developed symptoms of renal dysfunction with transient polyuria and serum retention of nitrogen metabolites. The patient was undergoing chelation therapy with DMPS, N-acetylcysteine and d-penicyllamine. Four procedures of haemodialysis were performed with simultaneous DMPS and N-acetylcysteine treatment. The urine mercury level on the first day of hospitalization was 1989 μg/L, and after 26 days of treatment returned to the physiological level. During treatment renal function was normalized, the patient was discharged in general good condition.

DISCUSSION

Mercuric chloride is readily absorbed from the nasal cavity. Its administration may cause intoxication manifested by both chemical burn at the exposure site and systemic symptoms, particularly renal impairment. Even in case of renal dysfunction the use of DMPS seems safe, if haemodialysis is performed at the same time. Simultaneous haemodialysis and chelation therapy may accelerate elimination of mercury from the organism.

The application of tailor-made force fields and molecular dynamics for NMR crystallography: a case study of free base cocaine

Motional averaging has been proven to be significant in predicting the chemical shifts in ab initio solid-state NMR calculations, and the applicability of motional averaging with molecular dynamics has been shown to depend on the accuracy of the molecular mechanical force field. The performance of a fully automatically generated tailor-made force field (TMFF) for the dynamic aspects of NMR crystallography is evaluated and compared with existing benchmarks, including static dispersion-corrected density functional theory calculations and the COMPASS force field. The crystal structure of free base cocaine is used as an example. The results reveal that, even though the TMFF outperforms the COMPASS force field for representing the energies and conformations of predicted structures, it does not give significant improvement in the accuracy of NMR calculations. Further studies should direct more attention to anisotropic chemical shifts and development of the method of solid-state NMR calculations.

Richard Willstätter and the 1915 Nobel Prize in chemistry

One hundred years after his Nobel Prize, Richard Willstätter's achievements and the fascinating role he played in 20th century chemistry are discussed in this Essay. Several of his discoveries, such as the anthocyanidins, cyclooctatetraene, the ortho-quinones, and the structure of cocaine, will forever be associated with his name.

Economical synthesis of 13C-labeled opiates, cocaine derivatives and selected urinary metabolites by derivatization of the natural products

The illegal use of opiates and cocaine is a challenge world-wide, but some derivatives are also valuable pharmaceuticals. Reference samples of the active ingredients and their metabolites are needed both for controlling administration in the clinic and to detect drugs of abuse. Especially, ¹³C-labeled compounds are useful for identification and quantification purposes by mass spectroscopic techniques, potentially increasing accuracy by minimizing ion alteration/suppression effects. Thus, the synthesis of [acetyl-¹³C₄]heroin, [acetyl-¹³C₄-methyl-¹³C]heroin, [acetyl-¹³C₂-methyl-¹³C]6-acetylmorphine, [N-methyl-¹³C-O-metyl-¹³C]codeine and phenyl-¹³C₆-labeled derivatives of cocaine, benzoylecgonine, norcocaine and cocaethylene was undertaken to provide such reference materials. The synthetic work has focused on identifying ¹³C atom-efficient routes towards these derivatives. Therefore, the ¹³C-labeled opiates and cocaine derivatives were made from the corresponding natural products.

Comparative analysis of heroin and cocaine seizures

In this brief review the analytical techniques mainly used for comparative analysis of both cocaine and heroin seizures are reported. The characterization of illicit samples is carried out by means of a variety of techniques including thin-layer chromatography, high-performance liquid chromatography, gas chromatography and capillary electrophoresis. By means of these technique it is possible to resolve some component in illicit drugs and their application for comparative analyses is described in this review. Owing to the complexity and the variability of the mixture related to the origin and manufacturing impurities a unique analytical approach based on the application of a single technique it is not sufficient to achieve the requested global characterization of the sample for comparative purposes. Generally a complete characterization is obtained focusing on the identification of minor and major components, origin and manufacturing impurities other than trace compounds such as solvent residues. Nevertheless the application of a single robust methods able to resolve any possible significant marker compounds, is still not described and there is a need for a standardized general procedure suitable for a complete cross-examination of analytical data related to comparative analyses that can be carried out at an international level.

In-depth chromatographic analyses of illicit cocaine and its precursor, coca leaves

Chromatographic methodology used for the in-depth alkaloid analyses of coca leaves and for the characterization of alkaloidal impurities and manufacturing by-products in illicit refined cocaine samples is reviewed. This includes liquid-liquid partition and liquid-solid adsorption column chromatography, packed- and capillary-column gas chromatography with flame-ionization, electron-capture, nitrogen-phosphorous and mass spectrometric detection, and high-performance liquid chromatography with ultraviolet detection. The rationale supporting the presence and determination of processing impurities/by-products in cocaine samples is discussed, and chromatographic methodology used for the development of drug impurity signature profiles is presented.

Determination of the enantiomeric composition of samples of cocaine by normal-phase high-performance liquid chromatography with UV detection

A high-performance liquid chromatographic method has been developed for the quantitation of the enantiomers of cocaine. Mixtures of the naturally occurring (-)-cocaine and synthetically produced (+)-cocaine were hydrolyzed in water to (+) and (-)-benzoyl ecgonine. Esterification with an optically pure 2-octanol resulted in diastereoisomers that could be separated on bare silica gel using an acetonitrile-aqueous ammonium phosphate mobile phase.