Talk:Adrenochrome

Adrenal extract
Extracts of the adrenal gland were first obtained by Polish physiologist Napoleon Cybulski in 1895. These extracts, which he called nadnerczyna ("adrenalin"), contained adrenaline and other catecholamines.In 1901, Takamine successfully isolated and purified the hormone from the adrenal glands of sheep and oxen.

Some people put adrenal extract under the tongue for physical or emotional stress, poor stress tolerance, general fatigue, allergies, autoimmune disorders, depression, pain and swelling (inflammation), low blood pressure, low blood sugar, drug and alcohol withdrawal, and discontinuation of cortisone drugs.

(Adrenaline)It is given intravenously, by injection into a muscle, by inhalation, or by injection just under the skin.

Adrenal extract is UNSAFE when injected. There have been at least 50 reports of serious infection at the injection site.

Since DHEA levels decline with age, some researchers speculate that supplementing your body's falling levels of the hormone might help fight aging. And some small studies have reported positive anti-aging effects from the use of DHEA supplements

Adrenal gland is responsible for the production of Cortisol Aldosterone DHEA and Androgenic Steroids Epinephrine (Adrenaline) and Norepinephrine (Noradrenaline).

Based on this, I suspect some instances of purported "adrenochrome" to be a misnomer of adrenal extract. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2605:A601:AACF:CF00:A52E:404B:A451:13F2 (talk) 13:07, 13 August 2020 (UTC)

Reference to similarities with LSD and Psilocybin
I just read the article referenced (Sommer, R., and H. Osmond Am. Anthropologist 62:1051 (1960).). It has nothing to do with what it is citing; it is a three page synthesis of studies on word association. I'm removing the sentence until there is real support of it. Chris b shanks (talk) 22:05, 22 November 2007 (UTC)

Furthermore, if anyone has access to the book, they should check the reference (Hoffer, A. and Osmond, H. The Hallucinogens (Academic Press, 1967).). Considering the second reference (mentioned above) one was completely off-topic, this one needs checking. Chris b shanks (talk) 22:09, 22 November 2007 (UTC)
 * I suspect hoax on the whole idea of adrenochrome being a psychotropic drug. I can't imagine the oxidation of adrenalin would have a drastic effect on its metabolism.  I even more strongly suspect any implication that the drug is used/abused for recreational purposes.  Consider the fact that pure adrenaline is schedule VI according to the US FDA, meaning there is little to no abuse potential.  Most of these claims of psychoactive effects seem to have stemmed from Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.  As a result I made it clear in the text that the Hoffer&Osmond is making the claim, and leave it to the reader to accept it or not.  As talk suggests, the source in question may not even support the claim at all. -Verdatum (talk) 00:33, 4 October 2008 (UTC)

https://www.fbcoverup.com/docs/library/1962-THE-EFFECT-OF-ADRENOCHROME-AND-ADRENOLUTIN-ON-THE-BEHAVIOR-OF-ANIMALS-AND-THE-PSYCHOLIOGY-OF-MAN-Intl-Rev-of-Neurobiology-Vol-4-pp-307-365-LC-59-13822-A-Hoffer-Assoc-Editor-Academic-Press-1962.pdf

Not a hoax. This wikipedia page is in poor condition and is a stub. Adrenochrome may cause irritability, apathy, visual and auditory hallucinations, acute schizophrenia, tachycardia,loss of concentration, paranoia, ambivalence, alterations in perception and estimation of time,difficulty in concentrating, relaxation, euphoria, giggling etc.

"In a few subjects disturbed associations carried on until the next placebo experiment although they had been normal before. This they had never observed with LSD, mescaline, or psilocybine. They finally concluded that the changes in thinking induced by adrenochrome were similar to those observed in schizophrenia."

"Most of the subjects had not taken other hallucinogens and so had no basis for comparison. Of the group that did, two compared it to mild psilo-cybine experiments and three to mild LSD reactions"

Seems like an unstable molecule with adrenochrome semicarbazone being not psychoactive ,d-adrenochrome and dl-adrenochrome showing psychoactive properties. Possibly depends on how your body metabolizes the substance is why some people are more susceptible to effect. During the experiments with LSD there are instances of no effects reported. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2605:A601:AACF:CF00:2402:DEA0:4E6B:1983 (talk) 12:09, 18 July 2020 (UTC)

In anodic plating process
As a metalurgist, I have used substances containing Adrenochrome, (in solution) to facilitate the anodic plating process. If further interested, see Mil-P-23377 Anodic Coatings. Also see "Anodizing". David A. Davis ddavis1715@hotmail.com —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 66.27.25.194 (talk • contribs) 23:09, 21 August 2005 (UTC)

Pure adrenochrome is a hallucinogen
Rinkel found that adrenochrome is not a hallucinogen. However, most likely he was using adrenochromesemicarbazide, which is inert. This substance does not get hydrolized and it does not release adrenochrome in the body. Rinkel later admitted his mistake in a largely unknown report. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Cooltrance (talk • contribs) 20:24, 13 November 2005 (UTC)


 * From : http://www.erowid.org/archive/rhodium/chemistry/adrenochrome.txt
 * Adrenochrome causes chemicaly induced schizophrenia. Its semicarbazone does not...Peoplez1k 23:53, 9 February 2007 (UTC)
 * Based on this link, this quote is originally from Legal Highs by (Adam Gottlieb). In that same section, it mentions that adrenochrome is not dissolvable in water, whereas a source later on in that same link, that appears to be quite a bit more reputable states that adrenochrome crystals readily dissolve in water.  I'm not familiar with the Gottlieb text, but with a title like "Legal Highs", it could very well be of the same calibur as The Anarchist Cookbook, and wouldn't be surprised if it contained content extolling the effects of Smoking banana peels.  I would not consider this link (that appears to be a message board archive of some sort) to be a Reliable Source. -Verdatum (talk) 00:45, 4 October 2008 (UTC)

Adrenaline (Epinephrine) & Adrenochrome
It is possible to have adrenochrome formation from Epinephrine in solution pH slightly acid with a low concentration in sulfite & EDTA (anesthesic solution)? Thanks —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 62.161.216.129 (talk • contribs) 12:31, 4 January 2006 (UTC)

Impossible. Epinephrine needs an oxidizing agent to form adrenochrome; specifically, silver oxide. Fuzzform —The preceding comment was added on 01:36, 16 February 2006.

William Gibson mention
I forget the name of the short story, but William Gibson mentions the adrenaline -> adrenochrome skitz thing in a short story in the collection "Burning Chrome." He has a character tell a "wiz" addict that the drug she's on must have some kinky little tail to keep the adrenaline from turning into adrenachrome, or she'd be skitz by now. -- TCallahan. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 12.25.62.140 (talk • contribs) 15:52, 5 June 2006 (UTC)

"Pop Culture"
Seeing as the references in music have being removed and that an entire page of reference to Andrenochrome probably isnt warrented perhaps a small section under "Usage in Song Lyrics" / "Popular culture references", any thoughts 62.254.167.3 15:44, 21 March 2007 (UTC)PreachanStoirm (couldnt log in at time of writing)

I agree with the Adrenochrome in music idea. It's the title of a Sisters of Mercy song and I've long wondered about it, but reading Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas finally drove me to look it up here. The page could use some more references. Somgoth (talk) 05:41, 10 September 2009 (UTC)


 * Another item that could be considered a popular culture reference to adrenochrome is an episode of the TV series, Fear the Walking Dead. In the 14th episode of the 3rd season (warning: potential spoilers), characters consume a drug extracted from zombie brains which should be seen as a tangential reference to the adrenochrome of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Cosmicaug (talk) 17:26, 20 September 2020 (UTC)

When talking about Qanon, it says a "false conspiracy theories"... I'm not an English professor, but that's a bit close to a double negative for my liking.

Wikipedia is not a concordance of passing pop culture "mentions." The Thompson and Burgess references have received attention in secondary sources that discuss the conspiracy theory, but that is not a reason to go listing every cultural work that drops the compound's name. 73.71.251.64 (talk) 19:28, 5 October 2020 (UTC)

WikiProject class rating
This article was automatically assessed because at least one WikiProject had rated the article as start, and the rating on other projects was brought up to start class. BetacommandBot 07:51, 10 November 2007 (UTC)

Another Cultural Mention
Episode 1 of the British detective show "Lewis" involves several characters who, during their college years, killed a girl to obtain adrenochrome in pursuit of the ultimate high. It sounds like they simply lifted the idea straight from Fear and Loathing, however 220.29.16.5 (talk) 15:17, 28 February 2009 (UTC)


 * The drug had actually been mentioned in the programme's predecessor, Inspector Morse, by the eponymous character, as a drug that was produced by the human body itself. But it could never (according to Morse) be used ethically, since its extraction caused the death of the person whose body produced it


 * Nuttyskin (talk) 00:30, 12 February 2020 (UTC)

A Clockwork Orange
In the opening scene of A Clockwork Orange, the main character talks about drinking milk laced with "drencrom" which appears to be a commercial version of adrenochrome (in universe). Not sure how to add this/if it should be added.TheNeutroniumAlchemist (talk) 04:00, 15 October 2009 (UTC)
 * I came over here to suggest the same thing. Crotchety Old Man (talk) 14:02, 23 December 2009 (UTC)

The Doors of Perception (Huxley)
The (alleged) hallucinogenic properties of adrenochrome, and its chemical similarity to mescaline and LSD are mentioned in Aldous Huxley's (1954) essay, The Doors of Perception . The essay, mostly about Huxley's experience with mescaline, was very widely read by people involved in (or just interested in) the psychedelic drug culture of the 1960s, and it is almost certainly where Hunter Thompson heard about adrenochrome, and the ultimate source of all the other pop culture references. (The rock band, The Doors, also took their name from Huxley's essay, which itself derived its title from the poet William Blake.) Treharne (talk) 05:33, 2 April 2012 (UTC)

Trip reports suggest very weak psychoactive effects
From http://www.erowid.org/experiences/exp.cgi?S1=329&S2=-1&C1=-1&Str= : "To sum up, effects were extremely weak, absolutely not fun nor psychedelic in anyway, and short lived." Another thing that the trip reports suggests is how scarce the substance is, as there is only three of them. That may be another cause of the myths surrounding this drug. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 85.95.155.8 (talk) 11:37, 11 April 2012 (UTC)

"mysticism"
what this section has to do with mysticism or religion is totally unclear, despite dropping those words multiple times 23:04, 11 May 2013 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.189.46.33 (talk)

I removed this as the source does not support the claim
A number of recently published papers consider Hoffer's paper a landmark contribution to the notion that impairment of what's now termed the anti-oxidant defense system (AODS) seems to play a role in schizophrenia. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Michaplot (talk • contribs) 09:28, 5 April 2020 (UTC)

PIKHAL (Alexander Shulgin)
From entry #157 (TMA; 3,4,5-TRIMETHOXYAMPHETAMINE): "Also there had been interest in reports that adrenalin that had become old and discolored seemed to elicit central effects in man. The oxidation products were identified as the deeply colored indolic compound adrenochrome and the colorless analogue adrenolutin. The controversy that these reports created just sort of died away, and the adrenochrome family has never been accepted as being psychedelic. No one in the scientific community today is looking in and about the area, and at present this is considered as an interesting historical footnote."

Colour
According to https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adrénochrome adrenochrome is blue in the solid state. Simon de Danser (talk) 17:04, 18 July 2020 (UTC)

Chirality
According to https://hmdb.ca/metabolites/HMDB0012884 this article is about the (R)-enantiomer. Simon de Danser (talk) 19:31, 18 July 2020 (UTC)


 * strictly probably not. In the body yes. However in vitro adrenochrome is most likely synthesised from synthetic epinephrine which containers both enantiomers and I can't see any way for the ring closing reaction to be stereoselective.©Geni (talk) 19:44, 27 September 2020 (UTC)

"not related to chromium/chrome"
It would be more helpful to state what the "chrome" part of the name does indicate, instead of what it doesn't. And that is: the substance's characteristic red color that Green and Richter relied on during their experiments to isolate it. (DOI:10.1042/bj0310596) The color in solution is already mentioned, but is not linked back to the name. 73.71.251.64 (talk) 19:26, 5 October 2020 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 27 February 2021
Please add this sentence to the section "Adrenochrome is a component of several false conspiracy theories such as QAnon and the Pizzagate conspiracy theory.[18][19][20]":

Because adrenochrome can easily be synthesized from adrenalin through oxidation, it would be inefficient to extract adrenochrome from human blood. CanmodWiki (talk) 16:41, 27 February 2021 (UTC)


 * Please provide a reliable source to support your claim. SmartSE (talk) 17:13, 27 February 2021 (UTC)


 * Reading the sources already cited, it seems the conspiracy theory goes that they extract adrenaline from human blood to make adrenochrome, so that statement wouldn't really work. I agree that a succinct statement explaining why the theory makes no sense could be helpful, but to do that we'd need to explain what the conspiracy theory is in the first place – possibly that would warrant it's own section? Something like "As adrenochrome is widely available and usually sourced synthetically, there would be no need to extract it from human blood" might do, but again to do that we'd need to first explain what the conspiracy theory actually is first. Volteer1 (talk) 17:15, 27 February 2021 (UTC)

Controlled substance?
Doesn't seem to be, per this Health Canada letter https://isomerdesign.com/Cdsa/HC/StatusDecisions/A-2013-00235%20-%20PDFs/NC-Adrenochrome-2011-01-24.pdf. That's not a strong enough source to state that it's not controlled either, decided to remove the claim either way. 98.2.228.116 (talk) 23:14, 24 October 2021 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 12 July 2023
fix the "tortired" children bit and move the twitter url to references. completely unprofessional but what more can I expect from wikipedia I guess. 2601:242:C001:4C0:844F:F157:4367:B751 (talk) 14:21, 12 July 2023 (UTC)
 * Pictogram voting comment.svg Note: Edit reverted.  — Paper9oll  (🔔 • 📝)  14:28, 12 July 2023 (UTC)

color again
The article says at one point adrenochrome is deep violet, in another piece it's described as pink. Here in the talk pages, it's further described as red, and blue. I myself have never seen the substance, but perhaps someone who has could then provide a link to a reliable source? Gzuckier (talk) 20:27, 26 February 2024 (UTC)
 * It says that the solid is violet, but if it is dissolved in water then those solutions appear pink. Colours can be like that. I added the source for deep violet, which seemed reliable enough to me.--Project Osprey (talk) 21:30, 26 February 2024 (UTC)