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Nevilla GA, Beckstead HD, Black DB, Dawson BA, Ethier JC. 
“USP Lysergic Acid Diethylamide Tartrate (LOT 1) Authentic Substance Recharacterized for Authentication of a House Supply of Lysergide (LSD) Tartrate”. 
Canadian Journal of Applied Spectroscopy. 1992;37(6):149-157.
Abstract
In subjecting a commercial supply of lysergide (LSD) tartrate (Sandoz, Lot 79001) to authentication for adoption as a "working standard", infrared (IR) and proton nuclear magnetic resonance (1-H-NMR) spectra of the working standard showed some dissimilar features to those obtained from the USP LSD Tartrate Authentic Substance (Lot I). Although comparable mass spectral results were obtained from the two LSD samples, further investigation by 1H- and l:tC-NMR spectroscopy showed the USP material to contain appreciable excess tartaric acid. Spectral and analytical evidence for recharacterization of the USP lysergic acid diethylamide tartrate (Lot I) as (C20H 25N sO)2' 1-65 CiH,;Ol:‘().5 H20 is presented and discussed together with NMR spectral evidence for differentiating LSD from lysergic acid methylpropylamide (LAMPA), an analogue having the same molecular weight and nearly identical IR and mass spectra.

Lysergide (N,N-diethyl-d-lysergamide), universally known as LSD, an acronym derived from the German name, lysergsaure diethylamid, is a synthetic substance first prepared by Stoll and Hofmann in 1943 from lysergic acid (1). The psychedelic effects and remarkable potency of LSD were discovered by chance by Albert Hofmann in April of 1943 (2); interestingly, derivatives of 1-lysergic acid (the epimer at position 5) and of d-isolysergic acid (the epimer at position 8 ) display relatively little biological activity. d-Lysergic acid amide and d-lysergic acid dimethylamide have only 1 0 percent of the pharmacological activity of LSD; thus removal of the ethyl groups results in decreased hallucinogenic power and psychomotor activity. During the 1960s, LSD as a "street drug" was being so widely used by young people as a "mood altering" and so-called "mind expanding" substance that, by 1970 in the U. S. A., it had to be regulated and restricted in order to reduce the high incidence o f adverse reactions that was rampant at the time, especially among students (3,4). In 1963 in Canada, however, the sale of “lysergic acid diethylamide” was restricted by its inclusion in Schedule H (Chap. 15) of the Statutes of Canada (5) except to authorised persons for experimental research purposes, and in 1969 the possession of "lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) or any salt thereof" without government authorization was made a criminal offense (6 ). There has been no medical use for LSD in over 20 years, and LSD products encountered today on the illicit market are produced only in clandestine laboratories. An outline of illicit production of LSD from d-lysergic acid, itself produced in clandestine laboratories, has been summarized in a U.N. manual recently published for use by national narcotics laboratories (7).
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