Lidocaine Report

Introduction Anesthetic agents were found as part of the research on developing structural mimics of cocaine. Cocaine is an alkaloid that can be found in the cocoa plant. Cocaine is known to have addictive properties as well as the anesthetic properties. There were compelling arguments to develop a synthetic version of cocaine that was devoid of the addiction potential (1).

Lidocaine is the generic name of a drug commonly used as an anesthetic. Another name commonly used for lidocaine is xylocaine. Lidocaine is used as a topical anesthetic, like a cream. Lidocaine possesses a group known as dialkylamino moiety which can be found in some tranquilizers, antidepressants, antihistamines, psychotomimetics, and antimalarials. Like many other

Step one is known as the preparation of 2,6-dimethylaniline. The preparation of 2,6-dimethylaniline is a reduction reaction. Step two is the preparation of α-chloro-2,6-dimethylacetanilide. This second step is an acylation reaction. The final step of the synthesis is the preparation of lidocaine. The preparation of lidocaine reaction is nucleophilic substitution.

During the synthesis of lidocaine concentrated hydrochloric acid and glacial acetic acid will be used. Hydrochloric acid and glacial acetic acid are both corrosive when in concentrated amounts. Sodium hydroxide (8M) will also be used and is known to cause burns and be caustic (1). None of these solutions should come in contact with skin. It is pertinent to wear the proper laboratory safety equipment (nitrile or latex gloves, safety glasses, and a laboratory coat) while handling the

Thus the aqueous layer was always on the bottom for the reactions. The crude lidocaine sample was purified through a process known as salt formation. Salt formation utilized diethyl ether, sulfuric acid, and acetone to create crystallization. The melting point of the purified lidocaine sample was measured to be approximately 68ºC to 70ºC. The α-chloro-2,6-dimethylacetanilide percent yield was calculated to be around 00.00%. The percent yield of the purified lidocaine was calculated to be approximately 00.00%.

Conclusion

The reactions from the synthesis of lidocaine were reduction, acylation, and nucleophilic substitution. At the end of the experiment only one product was formed. However, each step in the synthesis of lidocaine created a product that was utilized in the next step of the reaction. If one step was missed or had an error that was not caught and corrected the entire synthesis process would have been thrown off. The ending product and the product that was expected was a purified form of lidocaine.

References

1. Gilbert, C. John; Martin, F. Stephen. 2011. Experimental Organic Chemistry: A Miniscale and Microscale Approach. 5th Edition. Cengage Learning. pp.