Oxymorphone from Oxycodone?

[ShiftingWaterfall]

The reason im asking this is quite simple: Oxycodone is kind of easy to get but not so potent, while oxymorphone is supposed to be quiet a bit stronger and basically impossible to get
Im curious to know if this can be done and about the complexity of this procedure

Greetings, ShiftingWaterfall

 

[G.Patton]

The reason im asking this is quite simple: Oxycodone is kind of easy to get but not so potent, while oxymorphone is supposed to be quiet a bit stronger and basically impossible to get
Im curious to know if this can be done and about the complexity of this procedure

Greetings, ShiftingWaterfall

ShiftingWaterfallHello, sorry for a long reply. I found this method:

A mixture of 3.15 g (10e-2 mole) of oxycodone, 28.3 g (0.2944 mole) of methanesulfonic acid and 2.2 g of DL-methionine are heated to 40° C. The reaction mixture is stirred at this temperature for 12 hours and then poured onto ice. The mixture is made alkaline with ammonia to a pH = 8 to 9, then extracted with dichloromethane. The organic phases are washed with water, dried over sodium sulfate and evaporated to dryness under reduced pressure. The crude product thus obtained (2.51 g) is purified on a column of silica by eluating with pure chloroform followed by a gradient with methanol. 2.17 g of oxymorphone are thus obtained, which represents a yield of 72%.

You will most likely want to convert this into the hydrochloride: 5 g of the purified base previously obtained are disolved in 30 ml of warm acetone. After concentration to about 10 ml, 5 ml of 6N hydrochloric acid are added to the warm solution. The mixture is cooled to -10° C, and the precipitate is filtered off, washed with acetone and dried at 50° C in a vacuum. 4.83 g of oxymorphone hydrochloride are thus obtained. Yield 87%.

With an overall yield of 63% and a potency increase of 15, the actual gain factor is around 9, i.e. you have 9 times more opioid activity than at the beginning. A one-day dose can therefore be converted into a week-dose.

The kitchen chemistry adaptions would include the use of a hair dryer insted of the reduced pressure, skipping the purification process (the crude product should be clean enough and no toxic chemicals have been used).

I already know your next question: will it work with codeine or other codeine derivatives like dihydrocodeine or hydrocodone? NO, it won't. The yield would be terribly low (~15%) and a lot of goo is formed so serious cleanup has to be done.​

 

[Katty Korner]

There's a paper out there there where they react morphine and codeine with colloidal palladium to form hydromorphone and hydrocodone in good yields, like 70% or so.

Not a bad option if you can get otc codeine, but the palladium is expensive, and idk how to make colloidal palladium.

 

[plancklong]

Hi G.Patton, thanks for this gem!

I just want to confirm a few things on this. There is no mention of solvent for this reaction. Am I to conclude that the methanesulfonic acid, in addition to being the catalyst, also serves as the solvent?

What would be the easiest way to get oxycodone*HCl converted to oxycodone base so it can be used in this reaction? Is it even necessary?

Just one more thing: 28.3 g of methanesulfonic acid (MW=96.1 g/mol) is 2.9e-1 mole, not 3.1e-1 mole. Probably a simple typo by the author and nothing to worry about.
I don't know why I checked that. Not a big deal in this case, but in the future, I am going to double check much more frequently!

 

[G.Patton]

Hi G.Patton, thanks for this gem!

I just want to confirm a few things on this. There is no mention of solvent for this reaction. Am I to conclude that the methanesulfonic acid, in addition to being the catalyst, also serves as the solvent?

What would be the easiest way to get oxycodone*HCl converted to oxycodone base so it can be used in this reaction? Is it even necessary?

Just one more thing: 28.3 g of methanesulfonic acid (MW=96.1 g/mol) is 2.9e-1 mole, not 3.1e-1 mole. Probably a simple typo by the author and nothing to worry about.
I don't know why I checked that. Not a big deal in this case, but in the future, I am going to double check much more frequently!

plancklongHello, sorry for a long reply

Am I to conclude that the methanesulfonic acid, in addition to being the catalyst, also serves as the solvent?

Yes, I think so

What would be the easiest way to get oxycodone*HCl converted to oxycodone base so it can be used in this reaction? Is it even necessary?

Like with other organic salts, alkalize it with NaOH aq solution and extract with organic solvent with appropriate solubility. Yes, fore sure. It won't react properly in salt form.

I am going to double check much more frequently!

It has sense =)