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Ephedrine is still sold as an oral nasal decongestant [76] in 8 mg pills as a natural health product, with a limit of 0.4 g (400 mg) per package, the limit established by the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act as it is considered as Class A Precursor.
There are alkaloids that do not have strong psychoactive effect themselves, but are precursors for semi-synthetic psychoactive drugs. For example, ephedrine and pseudoephedrine are used to produce methcathinone and methamphetamine. [216] Thebaine is used in the synthesis of many painkillers such as oxycodone.
Drug precursors, also referred to as precursor chemicals or simply precursors, are substances used to manufacture illicit drugs. Most precursors also have legitimate commercial uses and are legally used in a wide variety of industrial processes and consumer products, such as medicines, flavourings, and fragrances.
It also maintains List I of chemicals and List II of chemicals, which contain chemicals that are used to manufacture the controlled substances/illicit drugs. The list is designated within the Controlled Substances Act [ 1 ] but can be modified by the U.S. Attorney General as illegal manufacturing practices change.
Amphetamine was first synthesized in 1887 in Germany by Romanian chemist, Lazăr Edeleanu, who named the drug phenylisopropylamine. [4] [3] [18] [2] This concoction was one of a series of compounds related to the plant derivative ephedrine, which had been isolated from the Chinese ephedra plant that same year by Nagai Nagayoshi. [6]
In chemistry, a precursor is a compound that participates in a chemical reaction that produces another compound. In biochemistry , the term "precursor" often refers more specifically to a chemical compound preceding another in a metabolic pathway , such as a protein precursor .
The reaction is used in spot tests and is also known as Chen-Kao test (or simply as Chen, Test T in UN Precursor Test Kit). The test is often used to distinguish ephedrine, pseudoephedrine, norephedrine , cathinone and methcathinone from amphetamine and methamphetamine , which do not react with Chen’s test reagent.
Ephedrine is the precursor of synthetic amphetamines. The diastereomer of ephedrine, pseudoephedrine is found in Ephedra sinica together along with ephedrine. Ephedrine and pseudoephedrine are both generally used for weight reduction and performance enhancement. They can also be reduced to methamphetamine. [2]