Q&A: What (Molecularly) Makes Pseudo-Ephedrine “pseudo”?

Published August 26, 2010

Question by foxydallas: What (molecularly) makes pseudo-ephedrine “pseudo”?
(I’m “fairly” chemistry literate-I will understand terms like “cis/trans” and “chiral” and other jargon on that level in your response-anything more complicated than that & you probably need to “dumb it down” for me.)

AND. . . with the health/safety concerns regarding ephedra, is psuedoephedrine somehow safer than ephedra, or just better financed by drug companies?

Best answer:

Answer by Edgar Greenberg
Pseudoephedrine is a diastereomer of ephedrine containing two steriocenters. Pseudoephedrine is (1S,2S) and ephedrine is (1R,2S)

As you probably know, Disasteromers can have radically different biological and chemical properties.

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