Hello everyone, I am an incoming freshman at a state university, and am planing on majoring in organic chemistry. My background is somewhat limited, with only the standard inorganic high school curriculum, and a few alkaloid extractions under my belt.
I am curious as to where i should start in regards to the isolation of mitragynine from kratom leaf, and the subsequent conversion of it to the more active 7-Hydroxymitragynine. I plan on studying the therapeutic potential of of this compound, which is reputed to be much more potent than morphine, but with less addiction and tolerance potential because of its affinity to other receptor groups, most notably as an alpha-2 adrenergic antagonist. Any help would be greatly appreciated. My attempt to use a weak solution of sodium hydroxide merely turned the compound into a freebase, instead of adding a hydroxy group like I hoped. What other compounds should I try, and would this be a one step or multi step reaction?
Wikipedia has the basic chemical structures of the compounds;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitragyninehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-hydroxymitragynineAs you can see the only difference between the compounds is an -OH attached to the 7th carbon atom.
I feel so stupid that I cant figure out how to attach a hydroxyl group there, I have much to learn this year.