[lupy]

Im interested in the Chemiluminescence of Lophine. I found a website describing its synthesis from benzaldehyde and ammonium hydroxide. All i have to do is get my hands on a cheap source of benzaldehyde. I know its used in immitation almond essense but its mixed with other things. Any ideas?

lupy

[limpet chicken]

Imitation almost essence isn't a very good way to get benzaldehyde, a few bees have tried, there was a crap yield reported just recently on that.

You could try oxidation of benzoic acid to the aldehyde with mild oxidising agents, maybe, although I am not sure, NaOCl or perhaps dichromate.

Just curious about lophine, are you referring to lophophine, 3-methoxy-4,5-methylenedioxyphenethylamine? one of the tetrahydroisoquinolines found in peyote?
or am I way off the mark here

[Donaldson Tan]

oxidation of benzaldehyde yields benzoic acid, not the other way round.

alternatively, try friedel-craft catalysis. Reflux CHOCl, AlCl₃ and benzene together to yield benzaldehyde

[AWK]

You could try oxidation of benzoic acid to the aldehyde with mild oxidising agents, maybe, although I am not sure, NaOCl or perhaps dichromate.

You mean oxidation of toluene, I do hope !?.

[movies]

alternatively, try friedel-craft catalysis. Reflux CHOCl, AlCl₃ and benzene together to yield benzaldehyde

This reaction won't work.  CHOCl is too unstable to isolate or use in Freidel-Crafts chemistry.

[lupy]

lol lophine as in 2:4:5-triphenyliminazole. I dont want to make be benzaldehyde, i want to buy it. Just woundering where from. Is it sold as a solvent?

http://www.sas.org/E-Bulletin/2003-08-08/chem/body.html

lupy

[limpet chicken]

You could look on ebay, they have benz sometimes, although it is bloody expensive, and personally, I wouldn't order it, it is somewhat watched, my bad earler, I did indeed mean toluene.

Benzaldehyde is pretty watched actually, as it is used in biosynthesis of L-PAC, by fermentation of benz with yeast, L-PAC is used for biosynthesis of ephedrine by some of the more high-tech cooks

[limpet chicken]

If you want a quick and easy synthesis of benzaldehyde, heat phenylalanine with 5N NaOH solution for 5 hours, at 110 C, it then decomposes, yielding benzaldehyde.

About as quick and easy as one can get, aspartame might be a good starting point for cheap as hell phenylalanine

[lupy]

110 C? so a water bath is not hot enough?..5 hours is along time to heat something without a controlled heat source (i dont have a filament heater with thermostat, only a water bath). Artifical sweetners in stores generally only have a few % aspartame in them that ive seen. A health food store said they could order in phenylalanine for me but its expensive.


lupy

[limpet chicken]

You can buy big jars, like coffee jar size, of powdered sweetener, I cant remember which brand, but something like nutrasweet, contains just apartame.

Any supermarket carries those big jars of inedible crap

Oil bath perhaps?

[movies]

Equal/NutraSweet is the one that uses Aspartame.  They add a lot of filler too though, mostly maltodextrose and dextrose, I think.  Just check the label.

I'm not aware of any commercial sweetner that is pure Aspartame.  The stuff is like 200 times sweeter than sugar (sucrose) so you need to have it "diluted" a little so you don't accidentally over-sweeten your coffee or something.