PiHKAL
Cover of PIHKAL, 1st ed.
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| Author | Alexander and Ann Shulgin |
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| Country | United States |
| Subject | Pharmacology, Autobiography, Psychoactive drugs |
| Publisher | Transform Press |
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Publication date
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1991 |
| Media type | Paperback |
| ISBN | |
| OCLC | 269100404 |
| Followed by | TiHKAL |
PiHKAL: A Chemical Love Story is a book by Dr. Alexander Shulgin and Ann Shulgin which was published in 1991. The subject of the work is psychoactive phenethylamine chemical derivatives, notably those that act as psychedelics and/or empathogen-entactogens. The main title is an acronym that stands for "Phenethylamines I Have Known And Loved".
The book is arranged into two parts, the first part being a fictionalized autobiography of the couple and the second part describing 179 different psychedelic compounds (most of which Shulgin discovered himself), including detailed synthesis instructions, bioassays, dosages, and other commentary.
The second part was made freely available by Shulgin on Erowid while the first part is available only in the printed text. While the reactions described are beyond the ability of people with a basic chemistry education, some tend to emphasize techniques that do not require difficult to obtain chemicals. Notable among these are the use of mercury-aluminum amalgam (an unusual but easy to obtain reagent) as a reducing agent and detailed suggestions on legal plant sources of important drug precursors such as safrole.
Through PIHKAL (and later TIHKAL), Shulgin sought to ensure that his discoveries would escape the limits of professional research labs and find their way to the public; a goal consistent with his stated beliefs that psychedelic drugs can be valuable tools for self-exploration. The MDMA ("ecstasy") synthesis published in PIHKAL remains one of the most common clandestine methods of its manufacture to this day. Many countries have banned the major substances for which this book gives directions for synthesis, such as 2C-B, 2C-T-2, and 2C-T-7. In the United Kingdom, all but phenethylamine are illegal.
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