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Abstract
Australian clandestine drug laboratories are constantly utilising alternative methods to produce methamphetamine, in part as restrictions are placed by Government on, for example, chemicals such as phenyl-2-propanone (P2P) (in the early 1980s), or on pseudoephedrine-containing pharmaceuticals, from the mid-2000s. This paper discusses the nitro-aldol reaction occurring between nitroethane and benzaldehyde, which can be utilised in a number of differing routes, in the presence of different bases. The resulting products, namely phenyl-2-nitropropene (P2P pathway) and 2-nitro-1-phenyl-1-propanol (ephedrine pathway) are directly dependant on which base is used; as such, the base may be used to provide an indication of a possible manufacture pathway of methamphetamine at a clandestine laboratory.