Amphetamine

Amphetamine or Amfetamine, also known as alpha-methyl-phenethylamine, phenyl-isopropylamine, beta-phenyl-isopropylamine, and benzedrine, is a prescription stimulant commonly used to treat Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in adults and children. It is also used to treat symptoms of traumatic brain injury and the daytime drowsiness symptoms of narcolepsy and chronic fatigue syndrome. Initially it was more popularly used to diminish the appetite and to control weight. Brand names of the drugs that contain Amphetamine include Adderall. The drug is also used illegally as a recreational club drug and as a performance enhancer.Amphetamine was synthesized in 1887 by Lazar Edeleanu at the University of Berlin. It was one of a series of compounds related to the plant derivative Ephedrine, which had been purified two years previously by Nagayoshi Nagai. No medical use was found for amphetamine until the 1900s, when it was introduced in most of the world in the form of the pharmaceutical Benzedrine. This drug was used by the militaries of several nations, especially the air forces, to fight fatigue and increase alertness among servicemen. After decades of reports of abuse, the FDA banned Benzedrine inhalers, and limited amphetamines to prescription use in 1959, but illegal use became common.

The related compound methamphetamine was first synthesized from ephedrine in Japan in 1893 by chemist Nagayoshi Nagai. In 1919, crystallized methamphetamine was synthesized by Akira Ogaberlandierita via reduction of ephedrine using red phosphorus and iodine. The German military was notorious for their use of methamphetamine in World War Two.Amphetamine was first synthesized in 1887 by the Romanian chemist Lazăr Edeleanu at the University of Berlin, who called it "phenylisopropylamine". Amphetamine is a chiral compound. The racemic mixture can be divided into its optical antipodes: levo- and dextro-amphetamine. Amphetamine is the parent compound of its own structural class, comprising a broad range of psychoactive derivatives, e.g., MDMA (Ecstasy) and the N-methylated form, methamphetamine. Amphetamine is a homologue of phenethylamine.Traditionally the medical drug came in the racemic salt d, l-amphetamine sulfate (racemic amphetamine contains levo- and dextro-form in equal amounts). Today, dextroamphetamine sulphate is the predominant form of the drug used; it consists entirely of the d-isomer. Attention disorders are often treated using Adderall or a generic equivalent, a formulation of mixed amphetamine salts that contain both d/l-amphetamine and d-amphetamine in the sulfate and saccharate forms mixed to a final ratio of 3 parts d-amphetamine to 1 part l-amphetamine.Amphetamine, both as d-amphetamine (dextroamphetamine) and l-amphetamine (or a racemic mixture of the two isomers), is believed to exert its effects by binding to the monoamine transporters and increasing extracellular levels of the biogenic amines dopamine, norepinephrine and serotonin. It is hypothesized that d-amphetamine acts primarily on the dopaminergic systems, while l-amphetamine is comparatively norepinephrinergic. The primary reinforcing and behavioral-stimulant effects of amphetamine, however, are linked to enhanced dopaminergic activity, primarily in the mesolimbic DA system. Amphetamine binds