Andy's Synthesis

Methylphenidate Take 1       Methylphenidate, or Ritalin, is a common pharmaceutical used to treat ADHD. It is also commonly abused. I did this synthesis two times over, so I'll start with my first idea. I'd also like to preface this with the fact that I am an amateur and I have not preformed this in the lab! I started from Styrene (the main precursor Styrofoam) which I would have reacted with mCPBA to achieve an epoxide. This would allow me to open the epoxide with a grignard. After opening the epoxide, I reacted with a decent oxidizing agent and did a fischer esterification. This was a good start but I could have eliminated a step. Methylphenidate Take 2 So, for this one, I looked up the professional synthesis and that was my inspiration for this route. In their synthesis, they started with a nitrile but spent way too much time working with amides. They also spent some time playing around with the stereochemistry, but my synthesis does not require enantiopurity. Th...

Chlorpromazine Chlorpromazine is a pretty run of the mill of antipsychotic. It is important to note that I am using a reterosynthetic method here. It is also important to know that this is an amateur synthesis, take it with a grain of salt. With that said, I started with a Chloroaniline, then did a Borylation (so that I could easily do the Chan-Lam Coupling). Next, because I had an aromatic halide, a Buchwald-Hartwig coupling was the next logical step. The rest wasn't too fancy, just some S N 2 reactions. I do see a problem in retrospect, I probably could've done the Chan-Lam and the Buchwald-Hartwig in on step. Anyways, this is my synthesis.

Hydrocodone Hydrocodone is an opiod use in Vicodin, a pain medication. This was a pretty simple synthesis; I just started with morphine, oxidized one of the alcohols, and performed a weak alkene hydrogenation.