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The Chemestry of MDMA

Many people have thought that 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA), also known as Ecstasy, is a combination of several illicit drugs, such as cocaine and heroin, however, there is only one chemical configuration represented. However, this belief is false. MDMA has it's own chemical makeup and the process of synthesis does not include other illicit substances (Cohen, pp 12-14). MDMA is derived from the oils of plants such as nutmeg, sassafras, saffron, dill, parsley seed, crocus, vanilla beans, and calamus. However, the chemical process of synthesis is much more complex than just extracting oils from plants (Taylor).

The synthesis of MDMA has four processes: 1. extraction of safrole from sassafras oil, or other sources (piperonal), 2. Isomerization of safrole into isosafrole by heating with NaOH or KOH, 3. Oxidizing isosafrole into MDP-2-P, and 4. Using the Leukart Reaction add N-methyl-N-forumyl-MDA to MDP-2-P resulting in MDMA (Taylor). Figure 1 gives the chemical structure and outline of the synthesis of MDMA.


MzDMA is an amphetamine derivative that is related chemically to both amphetamines and hallucinogens" with neurotoxic effects (Elk, p 349). It has also been termed as an entactogen, which is a substance described as "producing a feeling in one's innermost being" (Medical Information). There are many features of MDMA that set it apart from other drugs of its kind, although it MDMA has been classified as a "hallucinogenic-amphetamine," it does not have the potent stimulant and hallucinogenic effects. As a 3,4 disubstituted amphetamine, it is the only substituted amphetamine that only has substituted patterns in the 3 and 4 positions. Another unique feature is that it is "a secondary amine, with the basic nitrogen being substituted with an N-methyl. These attributes separate MDMA from the hallucinogenic and amphetamine agents that are the most potent of the primary amines. Another feature distinguishing MDMA from the hallucinogens is that the R-entantiomer of hallucinogens is the most potent agent in the Central Nervous System (CNS), whereas the R-form of MDMA is the least potent (Cohen, pp15-17). .

The Route of Access of MDMA

MDMA's most popular route of access is through oral ingestion. Although, it can be administered through intravenous injection, smoking or snorting it, and very rarely through suppository. When MDMA is swallowed it gets digested in the stomach where it enters the blood stream. Approximately 20% reaches the brain, two thirds is eliminated, unchanged, through urine, and 7% is "metabolised" into MDA (E is for Ecstasy). Once MDMA enters the brain it reacts with the chemicals in the brain, leading to the effects felt by MDMA.


Heavy users of ecstasy, a synthetic drug that is structurally similar to methamphetamine and the hallucinogen mescaline, may be risking brain damage that remains long after the high has worn off, according to NIDA-supported research.

In a series of studies conducted with rats and nonhuman primates, Dr. George Ricaurte and his colleagues at Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions first determined that a single dose of MDMA (3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine), only slightly higher than the size of doses taken by humans, significantly damaged brain cells called neurons that produce serotonin. Serotonin is a major neurotransmitter, or chemical messenger, in the brain that is thought to influence mood, appetite, sleep, and other important functions. Then Dr. Ricaurte reported that 12 to 18 months after the brains of squirrel monkeys had been damaged by MDMA, serotonin-producing nerve fibers had regrown abnormally in some brain regions and failed to regrow at all in others.

Unlike methamphetamine, which damages brain neurons that produce both serotonin and another important chemical messenger called dopamine, MDMA selectively damages serotonin neurons in virtually all species examined to date


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