[azygous420]

Each morning before I leave for school I have a cup of freshly brewed black tea (Black Tea contains: Gallic acid [C7H6O5] 3,4,5-hydroxybenzoic acid). The other day I went to school feeling really out of it even after that cup of tea and a hearty breakfast. I brought an apple (Contains: Sodium Benzoate [NaC6H5CO2]) so I munched on it during class, but even then I still felt a little out of it. After my first period class I made a stop at the vending machine and picked up a Dr. Pepper (Also Contains Sodium Benzoate). Throughout the next period I finished the Dr. Pepper. As the class came to the end I started feeling really weird, like i was dosed by some form of psychedelic drug. The next week the same thing happened!

-I've done mushrooms and this was like coming up on them, never done LSD, not a flashback.
-Never had this happen before from just tea in the morning (not a caffeine reaction).
-Not diabetic

After some research on psychedelic drugs I compared their chemical structures to that of Sodium Benzoate (Preservative in Dr. Pepper). Mescaline was the closest resembling the structure of Sodium Benzoate. As I said before, Black Tea contains: Gallic acid [C7H6O5] 3,4,5-hydroxybenzoic acid, which when I checked Wikipedia, it said it is used in the synthesis of  mescaline ([C11H17NO3] 3,4,5-trimethoxy-phenethylamine).

- Gallic acid [C7H6O5] 3,4,5-hydroxybenzoic acid (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gallic_acid)
- Sodium Benzoate [NaC6H5CO2] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodium_benzoate)
- Mescaline [C11H17NO3] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mescaline)
- Caffeine [C8H10N4O2] 1,3,7-trimethylxanthine (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caffeine) Can probably be ruled out because it would have reacted with Dr. Pepper alone, or Tea alone.

Would the reaction of Sodium Benzoate, and Gallic acid, in the presence of HCL in my stomach form anything like mescaline and cause the trip I felt?

[Mitch]

I doubt it. There wouldn't be a reaction in your body that could readily methylate those phenols.

[azygous420]

thanks for replying. I'm new to organic chemistry but its certainly a field i want to pursue. I'll see what i can learn to possibly figure it out. there may be too many variables.