Adrenochrome
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Adrenochrome, chemical formula C9H9NO3, is an oxidation product of adrenaline. Adrenochrome semicarbazone, also known as carbazochrome, is used as a medicinal drug to reduce capillary bleeding. Contrary to the popular myth, neither compound is a hallucinogenic drug.
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Schizophrenia hypothesis
Studies in the mid-twentieth century have indicated that adrenochrome is metabolized as one of two other substances, dihydroxyindole or adrenolutin. Dihydroxyindole may balance the anxiety and depression effects of adrenaline to reduce tension and irritability. Defective processing of adrenochrome, however, primarily produces the toxic adrenolutin instead, which combines with adrenochrome. The adrenochrome-adrenolutin combination is hypothesized by Dr. Abram Hoffer and Humphry Osmond to result in disruption of the brain's normal chemical processes. This disruption, according to their hypothesis, would be responsible for the symptomatology of schizophrenia. This hypothesis has long been abandoned.
Chemistry
An adrenochrome solution would likely be synthesized by a process involving suspension of adrenaline in an aqueous solution (likely water to suspend and trace HCl to dissolve). Silver oxide or catechol oxidase would be added for the requisite oxidation process, and the solution filtered to remove the adrenochrome.
Exaggerated hallucinogenic use
Adrenochrome semicarbazone is often mentioned as a recreational drug. However, it is not a psychedelic hallucinogenic drug and its psychoactive effects are described as very mild to none, and may well entirely be placebo effect.
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
Author Hunter S. Thompson mentions adrenochrome in his book Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. In the book it is derived from a living donor's adrenal gland (removing the gland kills the donor). As such, it is purported to be very exotic, and very intense: "the first wave felt like a combination of mescalin and methedrine". The adrenochrome scene also appears in the novel's film adaptation. In the DVD commentary, director Terry Gilliam admits that his and Thompson's portrayal is fictional hyperbole.
Other
- "Drencrom", presumably an abbreviation of adrenochrome, is mentioned as one of the drugs that can be purchased from the milk bar in the Anthony Burgess novel A Clockwork Orange.
- "Adrenochrome" is also a song by The Sisters of Mercy on their second release, the 1982 double A 7" Body Electric / Adrenochrome. Currently, it can be found on their retrospective Some Girls Wander By Mistake back-catalogue collection album of 1992.
- Adrenochrome is also a top-shelf company offering design services for web, print and more.