Α-Eucaine
chemical compound
α-Eucaine (alpha-eucaine) is a drug that was previously used as a local anesthetic. It was designed as an analog of cocaine and was one of the first synthetic chemical compounds to find general use as an anesthetic.
Synthesis
The aldol condensation between two equivalents of acetone gives mesityl oxide (1), with isophorone as a side-product of this reaction. Ammonolysis of mesityl oxide formed diacetonamine (2). The reaction of this product with acetone then gives triacetonamine (3). N-Methylation of the secondary amine gives 1,2,2,6,6-pentamethylpiperidin-4-one (4). Cyanohydrin formation gives (5). Esterification of the tertiary alcohol with benzoyl chloride gives (6). Pinner reaction of the nitrile with acidified ethanol affords alpha-eucaine (7).
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The date and method of observation matter as much as the stated conclusion, especially where classification or consensus has changed. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 7, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q27116394. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
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This entry incorporates text from “Α-Eucaine” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.