A mixture of 124 g N-methylformanilide and 140 g POCl₃ was allowed to stand until there was the development of a strong red color. There was then added 60 g of the above 2,5-dimethoxypropylbenzene and the mixture was held on the steam bath for 2 h. The mixture was added to 2 L H₂O and stirred until the excess acid chloride had completely decomposed. The mixture was extracted with 3×100 mL CH₂Cl₂ and, after the removal of the solvent from the combined extracts, the residue was extracted with 3×100 mL boiling hexane. Removal of the solvent gave the product 2,5-dimethoxy-4-propylbenzaldehyde as an oil, 23 g, which was characterized as its malononitrile derivative. Equal weights of the product and malononitrile in EtOH with a catalytic amount of triethylamine gave yellow crystals which, on recrystallization from toluene, had a mp of 113–114 °C.

A solution of 21.5 g of the above crude 2,5-dimethoxy-4-propylbenzaldehyde in 75 g acetic acid, was treated with 10.4 g nitroethane and 6.6 g anhydrous ammonium acetate. This was heated on the steam bath for 1.75 h, then cooled and diluted with H₂O to the point of turbidity. With long standing and scratching, there finally was the deposition of crystals which were removed by filtration and sucked as dry as possible. This 23 g of crude product cake was triturated under MeOH, filtered again, and air dried to give 11 g of dull orange crystals. Recrystallization from boiling MeOH gave 1-(2,5-dimethoxy-4-n-propylphenyl)-2-nitropropene as fine orange crystals which weighed, after filtering, washing, and drying, 7.4 g, and which had a mp of 94–96 °C.

To a suspension of 6.0 g LAH in 500 mL anhydrous Et₂O, which was being stirred and also held as a gentle reflux, there was added a saturated solution of (2,5-dimethoxy-4-n-propylphenyl)-2-nitropropene in warm THF. The reaction mixture was held at reflux for 24 h, then cooled to room temperature. The excess hydride was destroyed by the cautious addition of 500 mL dilute H₂SO₄. The phases were separated, and the aqueous phase washed with additional Et₂O. There was then added 150 g potassium sodium tartrate, and the pH was brought to >9 with aqueous NaOH. The product was extracted with Et₂O and, after removal of the solvent, the residue was dissolved in 200 mL anhydrous Et₂O and saturated with anhydrous HCl gas. The solids that formed were removed by filtration, giving 6.15 g 2,5-dimethoxy-4-n-propylamphetamine hydrochloride (DOPR) as an electrostatic, white crystalline powder, with a mp of 182.5–183 °C. This was not improved by recrystallization from either IPA or CH₃CN.

(with 3.6 mg) “Imagery that was constructed in response to the music turned out to be necessary to organize and contain it. The trio is the nucleus that transforms the written to the heard, but it has created its own bubble without connections to the real world, and must play on and on and on to keep itself afloat and never touching the stage again.”

(with 5.0 mg) “I am now at midnight, and still strongly +++. This is certainly maximum dosage, at least for a long time. There are faint intimations of nervous system scrungies. You know, the kind of thing that makes you figure it’s going to be a while before you’ll try to relax into sleep. This material, like all the other DO’s, is a heavy duty psychedelic, the kind that says to you, ‘Forget all that stuff about screening out visuals,’ and then proceeds to prove it. Sort of indole-like in that way. Your body as well as your mind tells you you’re into it, baby, and better relax and enjoy the trip, because you’ve left the shore way behind. When it was time for bed, I got to sleep with surprising ease, and slept for only about six hours. My dreams were excellent, balancing, and good humored. But the next day I realized I was still carrying the DOPR in me, and that baseline was definitely not there. But it was OK. No problems except for sleepiness. The next evening I went to bed at unheard-of hour of 9 p.m. and slept for 13 hours, give or take. Fascinating compound, but I won’t go out of my way to take it again soon.”

There had been quite a bit of speculation in the literature that the metabolic attack on was at the 4-position, and this was an oxidation process. In a moment of inspiration, I decided to explore a similar oxidation step in DOPR, since it is probably the most potent of the DO-series. Why not make the compound which would be the first step in this oxidation, the 1-hydroxypropyl analogue? This I did, by using the phthalimide derivative of 2,5-dimethoxyamphetamine (described in the synthesis of ) and making the propiophenone using propionic acid as both reagent and solvent, and polyphosphoric acid as the condensing agent. The ketone product (a white crystalline solid from methanol) was dissolved in warm methanol and reduced to the alcohol with sodium borohydride. This product, also a white crystalline solid, was stripped of the phthalimide blocking group with overnight refluxing with hydrazine in ethanol. The product, 2,5-dimethoxy-4-(1-hydroxypropyl)amphetamine () had a mp of 148–150 °C from IPA. Its activity is not yet known, but there were no effects at all at trials, orally, of up to 200 micrograms.

But this is all with the n-propyl compound. There is a rich collection of misinformation and potential discovery that is associated with the isopropyl isomer. This structural isomer, 2,5-dimethoxyl-4-isopropylamphetamine is properly called for des-oxy-isopropyl. It has been synthesized and explored in animals and, to a modest extent, in man. The synthesis has proceeded from 2,5-dimethoxyacetophenone by the addition of a methyl group to the carbonyl followed by reduction to the hydrocarbon. Aldehyde formation, nitropropene synthesis with nitroethane, and lithium aluminum hydride reduction are uneventful, providing the hydrochloride salt DOIP, which has a mp of 183–184 °C as an analytical sample. Animal tests (such as rabbit hyperthermia assays), have indicated that the isopropyl compound DOIP is less potent than the propyl prototype, DOPR, by between one and two orders of magnitude. In man, a dose of four milligrams, a rousing dose of DOPR, is without any effects. At 10 milligrams, there is some disturbance but substantially no effects. I have been told that with doses in the 20 to 30 milligram range there are valid changes in mental state, but I have not been told the nature of these changes.

A fascinating red herring had been drawn across all of these exacting lines by a strange visitor to this research project. An olive-faced M.D., Ph.D., passed through this confusing scene briefly, and when he left, a small supply of DOPR left with him. He promptly published in an obscure journal some animal behavioral responses which he ascribed to the isopropyl analogue, . But what he had studied could only have been DOPR since DOIP, at that time, had not yet been synthesized either by me, or by either of the other two active synthesists of that moment. It was not yet a known material. We all made it some time later, but by that time our olive-face had disappeared. There is a magnificent French phrase that applies here as nowhere else; Il a foutu le camp. Its idiomatic meaning is equivalent to our, “He took off,” or “He split the scene,” but the literal translation is, “He fucked the camp.”