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Mephedrone hydrochloride vs hydrobromide

Combinations

Mephedrone salts

Mephedrone can be sold as capsules, tablets, crystals, crystalline powder or simple starch-like white powder, that consumers may swallow, sniff, inject, smoke or enter rectally. The mephedrone free base, which is obtained by a laboratory synthesis, is converted into salt forms. It is known that there are two used options: hydrochloric and hydrobromic mephedrone salts. Both compounds are colorless to off-white powders or crystals after recrystallization from acetone. Melting points of mephedrone hydrochloride and hydrobromide were determined by an experiment and gave sharp melting points at 251.18 °C and 205.25 °C, respectively.

Mephedrone hydrochloride vs hydrobromide: main differences
Mephedrone hydrobromide

Both mephedrone salts crystals almost have no color and looks as pure white powder or translucent whitish crystals. In case your product is colored, it means that mephedrone contains impurities. If someone told you that a product color is given by a “special” synthesis method or this is of “magically improved” salt, send this person to purify and recrystallize this “magic” mephedrone. Both salts are translucent whitish crystals. Mephedrone hydrochloride and hydrobromide are easy to store. So far as mephedrone psycho effects power is concerned, that no one salt “better” or “stronger” than another one salt. A mephedrone salt molecule consists of two parts: protonated 4-MMC molecule (cation with (+) charge) and an acid residue (anion with (-) charge). Hence, the bigger mephedrone free base part in a salt unit weight, the stronger effect on a human body.

How much mephedrone hydrochloride is contained in both of these salts per 1 g?

Molar masses:

  • Mephedrone hydrochloride – 213.71 g/mol;
  • Mephedrone hydrobromide – 258.16 g/mol;
See also  Compatibility of mephedrone with other substances and contraindications to use

Therefore, an amount of mephedrone free base in each 1 g (rounded off) of its salt:

  • Mephedrone hydrochloride 0.00468 mol;
  • Mephedrone hydrobromide – 0.00387 mol;

The molar mass of the free base of mephedrone is 177.25 g/mol.

Therefore, 1 g of mephedrone hydrochloride contains 0.83 g of mephedrone free base, hydrobromide contains 0.69 g of active mephedrone. Thus, mephedrone hydrobromide have the difference in the amount of active substance ~1.2 times (16.87%) less than mephedrone hydrochloride. A difference between psychoeffects can be caused by a side-products or deliberately added admixtures. The difference cannot be caused by form of mephedrone salt. Crystalline structures of different mephedrone salts are shown in following pictures (left pic. – mephedrone hydrochloride, right pic. – mephedrone hydrobrimide).​ They was shoted by X-ray crystallography analysis.

Mephedrone hydrochloride vs hydrobromide: main differences
mephedrone hydrochloride and mephedrone hydrobrimide crystalline structures

Drug solid solutions – a method for tuning phase transformations Amit Delori, Pauline Maclure, Rajni M. Bhardwaj, Andrea Johnston, Alastair J. Florence, Oliver B. Sutcliffe and Iain D.H. Oswald* CrystEngComm, DOI:10.1039/C4CE00211C