What Is L-Isomer Have to Do With Drug Make Up (Chemistry)?

Question by steve g: what is l-isomer have to do with drug make up (chemistry)?
d-isomer& l-isomer a chemical make up of medicines or drugs
what are they ?

Best answer:

Answer by Mathieu
You have probably heard of methamphetamine I assume?

There are two forms of methamphetamine

1) Dextromethamphetamine (d-methamphetamine)

2) Levomethamphetamine (l-methamphetamine)

The difference between the isomers are the same as your hands, they are minor images. The dextrorotary (d-) would be your right hand and the levorotary (l-) would be your left hand.

The reason it is important with drugs is that the effects of one isomer may be completely different than the other. L-methamphetamine is, for example, available to you over-the-counter at your local pharmacy and it has the abuse potential of Aspirin (ie none). The Vicks Vapor Inhaler is levomethamphetamine. However since methamphetamine is so stigmatized the name was changed to levmetamfetamine (not that big of a change).

Now dextromethamphetamine is “meth,” the drug that is extremely addictive. Almost all street meth is a racemic mixture (ie having both l- and d-methamphetamine) and in The US there is a prescription drug called Desoxyn that is pure d-methamphetamine.

This also applies to amphetamine. The amphetamine is that extremely addictive is dextroamphetamine and levomethamphetamine is very weak.

Ritalin (methylphenidate) is a racemic mixture. After Ritalin came out Focalin came out and that is only dextromethylphenidate (it is called dexmethylphenidate). The levomethylphenidate has no effect. So 20 mg of Ritalin is equal to 10 mg of Focalin.

L-dopa is used to treat Parkinson’s and d-dopa is useless.

And there are many more examples.

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