Sciencemadness Discussion Board

How do you separate Paracetamol, Chlorphenamine maleate and Phenylephrine HCL

theSchoolGirl - 14-7-2011 at 23:21

Okay, some I'm trying to get my wits straight here. Does anybody know how to completely separate Paracetamol, Chlorphenamine maleate, and Phenylephrine HCl[500mg/2mg/10mg](With highest yields?).:(
Apparently, I don't have enough brain power.

Mailinmypocket - 15-7-2011 at 04:56

First post and asking for a step by step on how to separate the ingredients of cold and sinus pills... Wonderfully obvious :)

Arthur Dent - 15-7-2011 at 04:58

Quote: Originally posted by theSchoolGirl  
...Apparently, I don't have enough brain power.


Agreed.

Robert

Phosphor-ing - 15-7-2011 at 05:27

Which product are you after? What research have you done?

I suggest you do a little reading here before posting a do it for me question. It is frowned upon here to not at least show you have tried.


@Mailinmypocket- if this is what you think it is, It would truly be epic fail! Phenylepherine HCl LOL!

Nicodem - 15-7-2011 at 07:04

Quote: Originally posted by theSchoolGirl  
Okay, some I'm trying to get my wits straight here. Does anybody know how to completely separate Paracetamol, Chlorphenamine maleate, and Phenylephrine HCl[500mg/2mg/10mg](With highest yields?).:(
Apparently, I don't have enough brain power.

You can separate paracetamol by recrystallization from water or water/ethanol.

PS: Open referenceless and/or beginners threads only in the appropriate forum section where I'm moving this.

theSchoolGirl - 15-7-2011 at 14:44

Quote: Originally posted by Mailinmypocket  
First post and asking for a step by step on how to separate the ingredients of cold and sinus pills... Wonderfully obvious :)

Tell me straight up what this "obvious" thing your talkin' about is...
Quote: Originally posted by Phosphor-ing  
@Mailinmypocket- if this is what you think it is, It would truly be epic fail! Phenylepherine HCl LOL!

This is absolutely not what you boys are thinking. I just found out about this after your posts of 'Phenylepherine HCl'-I'm clearly not interested in it.
Quote: Originally posted by Nicodem  
PS: Open referenceless and/or beginners threads only in the appropriate forum section where I'm moving this.

So sorry about this one here....:(
Quote: Originally posted by Arthur Dent  
Agreed.

I'm sure I'll be able to improve on this after about two-years in this forum.:)
Quote: Originally posted by Phosphor-ing  
I suggest you do a little reading here before posting a do it for me question. It is frowned upon here to not at least show you have tried.

Sorry I wasn't able to show my efforts, I've actually done a lot of reading before asking.
Quote: Originally posted by Phosphor-ing  
Which product are you after? What research have you done?

-I'm after all three of the products...(Chem. Prof. said to "take any multi-content pill, break it up, and show it's contents."). A Colds/Sinus pill is what I have available here at home, I wished I could have bought something else(I don't wanna buy something I don't need, 1USD/day is what I have for allowance)so you guys would think of something else, instead of me making drugs.
-Research I have done kept leading me to erowiddotorg(definitely not the place I want to hang out for long.
Quote: Originally posted by Nicodem  
You can separate paracetamol by recrystallization from water or water/ethanol.

Yes, I've seen & tried the Cold Water Extraction;:D
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_water_extraction
I've also tried the Codeine Extraction;:D
http://www.erowid.org/pharms/codeine/codeine_faq.shtml#pharm...
(This page definitely showed me a lot of things I didn't want to know...)

Okay, so I could get Paracetamol thru that Cold Water technique, whatever happened to phenylephrine & chlorphenamine maleate?


Nicodem - 15-7-2011 at 15:37

Quote: Originally posted by theSchoolGirl  
Okay, so I could get Paracetamol thru that Cold Water technique, whatever happened to phenylephrine & chlorphenamine maleate?

Don't trust some obscure Wikipedia entry on nomenclature. It is called recrystallization, not "Cold Water technique" (this sounds like a name a tweaker would use for some idiotic "tech").

Anyway, basify the mother liquor with NaOH to about pH 12 and extract to obtain chlorphenamine base. The phenylephrine and residual paracetamol will not get extracted from basic aqueous solution.

theSchoolGirl - 15-7-2011 at 16:03

@Nicodem; Alrighty, I'm off to get some litmus paper to determine the pH level.
Tweaker? I'm not sure what you mean on this one, but I'm pretty sure it's off-topic.
Will post back some pictures once I've done this one.

overload - 15-7-2011 at 17:31

Why don't you save up your money and then conduct some experiments? Maybe you'll figure it out on your own...

theflickkk - 15-7-2011 at 23:03

Why litmus paper instead of a pH meter? Isn't litmus paper's working range between 4.5 and 8.3? Since you're trying to determine a pH of 12, litmus paper wouldn't be suitable . Correct me if I'm wrong please.

[Edited on 16-7-2011 by theflickkk]

theSchoolGirl - 16-7-2011 at 01:08

Quote: Originally posted by theflickkk  
Why litmus paper instead of a pH meter? Isn't litmus paper's working range between 4.5 and 8.3? Since you're trying to determine a pH of 12, litmus paper wouldn't be suitable . Correct me if I'm wrong please.

I'm in my first month of B.S. Chemistry, sorry. I'll try to find a pH meter here in the school lab.
Quote: Originally posted by overload  
Why don't you save up your money and then conduct some experiments? Maybe you'll figure it out on your own...

I've got very limited resources, and money... :)

Copy of DSCN9586.JPG - 111kB

Rich_Insane - 22-7-2011 at 14:46

Dissolve the material in water -- and a lot of it. Try to get the binders out. Then slowly bnasify the solution. You can use variations of the Henderson Hasselbach equation to determine the percent ionization of the salts. Careful not to go too basic, or you will tear that acetyl group off of the amine. You could look up pKa values of the two salts and try to separate out one from the other. First you're gonna want to get the paracetamol out. Try using some solvent that HCl salts won't be soluble in. I don't have the Merck entry for paracetamol, but look it up. Any NP solvent will do. The drier the solvent, the better your results. The result would be the leftover salts that you want to separate. From there you can use the pKa values of the salts to try to figure things out, though you will want a wicked accurate pH meter for that. You could try to base out the salts and distill them, but those pills likely have very little.

Just my 2 cents. I'm no expert.

uchiacon - 29-7-2011 at 04:27

Google it?

"I WANT TO MAKE METH LOL"

I don't know about methamphetamine synthesis, but LSD synthesis seems fascinating! And it can't be made in joe's kitchen crystal lab

ScienceSquirrel - 29-7-2011 at 05:16

If you are looking at separating the active ingredients from any pill then you should go for something easy eg paracetamol and codeine that can be separated by simple methods.
Chromatography will separate almost anything if you take it far enough but you do not have the resources to do it.