Sciencemadness Discussion Board

5-hydroxylation of dopamine

noxious - 17-6-2012 at 15:26

I was looking at the structure of dopamine (3,4-dihydroxyphenethylamine) and wondered if the following procedure could be applied to it, instead of using vanillin as the substrate: http://www.erowid.org/archive/rhodium/chemistry/iodovanillin...

And so it was tried, resulting in a dark solution upon addition of the base. This was expected because of the highly electron-rich aromatic ring.

Do you think this is reasonable? Could the dopamine first be O-methylated to reduce the oxidation? What changes would you make to the technique?

Dopamine:


[Edited on 17-6-2012 by noxious]

mnick12 - 17-6-2012 at 20:18

Oh hmmm looking for some 3,4,5- tri substituted phenethylamines? There are better ways which are known to work well, you have a link to one such procedure. Also that amine is likely whats causing you problems, O-methylation will likely give you a different ring substitution pattern or at the very least a mix of isomers. Best to stick to what works.