PiHKAL
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. Part one is a fictionalized autobiography of the couple while part two is detailed synthesis instructions for 179 different psychedelic compounds (most of which Shulgin discovered himself), including bioassays, dosages, and other commentary. The second part is made freely available by Shulgin on Erowid.org while the first part is available only in the printed text.
Notable excerpts
Magical half-dozen
The so-called "magical half-dozen" refers to Shulgin's self-rated most important phenethylamine compounds, all of which except mescaline he developed and synthesized himself. They are found within the first book of PIHKAL, and are as follows:
- Mescaline (3,4,5-trimethoxyphenethylamine)
- DOM (2,5-dimethoxy-4-methylamphetamine)
- 2C-B (2,5-dimethoxy-4-bromophenethylamine)
- 2C-E (2,5-dimethoxy-4-ethylphenethylamine)
- 2C-T-2 (2,5-dimethoxy-4-ethylthiophenethylamine)
- 2C-T-7 (2,5-dimethoxy-4-propylthiophenethylamine)
Essential amphetamines
The "Essential Amphetamines" are what Shulgin describes as ten amphetamines that differ from natural products such as safrole or myristicin by an amine group (PIHKAL Entry #157 TMA). The list consists of:
- PMA (para-methoxy-amphetamine)
- 2,4-DMA (2,4-dimethoxy-amphetamine)
- 3,4-DMA (3,4-dimethoxy-amphetamine)
- MDA (3,4-methylenedioxy-amphetamine)
- MMDA (3-methoxy-4,5-methylendioxy-amphetamine)
- MMDA-3a (2-methoxy-3,4-methylendioxyamphetamine)
- MMDA-2 (2-methoxy-4,5-methylendioxyamphetamine)
- TMA (3,4,5-trimethoxyamphetamine)
- TMA-2 (2,4,5-trimethoxyamphetamine)
- DMMDA (2,5-dimethoxy-3,4-methylenedioxyamphetamine)
- DMMDA-2 (2,3-dimethoxy-4,5-methylenedioxyamphetamine)
- TeMA (2,3,4,5-tetramethoxyamphetamine)
Not all of these chemicals are bioassayed in PIHKAL, some are merely mentioned.