Potential misrepresentation of 3,4-methylenedioxyamphetamine (MDA). A toxicological warning

The illicit synthesis of the popular drug 3,4-methylenedioxyamphetamine (MDA) has frequently called upon the precursor piperonylacetone, which is reductively aminated with ammonium hydroxide. The term "piperonylacetone" has been used for two distinct chemical entities in the chemical literature, vis., 3,4-methylenedioxyphenylacetone or 3,4-methylenedioxybenzylacetone. It is only the first of these two chemicals which will give rise to MDA. The second chemical has been made commercially available as piperonylacetone and, employing the usual recipes, produces 1-(3,4-methylenedioxyphenyl)-3-aminobutane. This amine could be mistaken for MDA if only simple presumptive tests are employed. This latter base is largely unexplored pharmacologically and toxicologically and, as it may reasonably appear in illicit drug traffic misrepresented as MDA, it may well represent a clinical problem of unforseeable consequences.