Weakly basic impurities in illicit amphetamine.

In this paper the isolation and identification of two pyrimidines, five pyridines, and one pyridone as impurities in illicit amphetamines prepared by the Leuckart synthesis are reported. Isolation was achieved by repeated thin-layer chromatography with various solvent mixtures, while identification was done by both high and low resolution mass spectrometry and 1H and 13C NMR spectroscopy. Some chromatographic data are reported and a quantitative analysis of a reaction mixture and an illicit amphetamine is given.