Turning Aspirin into Tylenol

[@marcusmerrin192]

I'm an old-school chemist (PhD 1987). I love what you do, and it reminds me why I fell in love with chemistry as a teenager! Keep experimenting and teaching!

[@thebassrogue]

That's so cool! I love chemistry but didn't follow the profession... I have fun vicariously thru Nile

[@michaelneal3162]

Dude I am kind jealous of any one who liked chemistry. I technically failed the class. Only because I never did my home work. I got nearly 100% on all my test. It just felt like all I did was balance equations.

[@shauntaebritt6488]

Just curious and out of pure respect, do they use fetal tissue to make tylenol?

[@coop6622]

I love that you two found each other Marcus, this post warmed my heart. ❤️

[@scarcety8133]

@@shauntaebritt6488 no absolutely not

[@TrueVartoc]

"I was able to convert 200 extra strength aspirins into one really weak tylenol" SUCCESS

[@ItachiMusic]

where did everything else go lol

[@saltmine]

Look at it this way if his yield was super high he might get in trouble with some farma companies ;) but that really depends on the pricing of both painkillers if it would even would be an issue

[@GodlikeIridium]

Yeah it is a success, simply because he did achieve he's goal. And it's pretty cool. And that would be great for chemistry students, either as theoretical exam or as practial lab for 4th semesters.

[@justsomecommentchannel8602]

stonks

[@yigitalpalakoc]

Cant spell success without SUCC so i guess he SUCCed some of it

[@bretsutherlandsterriblemem8439]

"Turning one really weak tylenol back into 200 extra strength Aspirin tablets"

[@MrPicklesAndTea]

Imma head out to buy a 30 pack of tylenol so I can have unlimited aspirin.

[@Defhrone]

@@MrPicklesAndTea that's close to how homeopathy works xD

[@ryujinayato1623]

Kage bushin no jutsu!

[@zoeyuroboros5739]

@@ryujinayato1623 what?

[@geostyma]

I just died

[@Xypos]

NileRed: The process is very straight forward Me 26 minutes later: Wait what?

[@loki8061]

@Xypos I'm right there with you

[@chitlitlah]

Well if you couldn't follow the simple 327 steps in the process, I don't know what to tell you.

[@divyansh1024]

they were straight forward reactions from a theoretical standpoint. was a nightmare doing it irl lol

[@Mx.Cumulonymphus]

"Ah crap I got aspirin, not tylenol" "Don't worry mom, I can work with this"

[@thatonedynamitecuber]

*Makes a very weak tylenol pill* "Mom, I think you're gonna die"

[@themittenkitten_wastakenfromme]

Why the video was recorded:

[@citrus4419]

hahahaha!

[@gl1500ctv]

21:36 I thought "he's good... look, there's a Tylenol capsule in the product!" It was his stir bar.

[@BillAnt]

The Tylenol was just a crusting on the stir bar, you'd have to swallow it whole to get any affect. lol

[@gl1500ctv]

@@BillAnt And hope nobody turns a strong magnet in the vicinity of your gut. I'd assume it would continue to stir. Ouch.

[@ethangoldsmith9332]

Hehe

[@joemcroberts9975]

@@gl1500ctv MRI scan after swallowing

[@flamesage0992]

About as big as a real one

[@vickierayhill4637]

I have to admit, I use your videos to fall asleep at night. Your voice is so soothing, calm, clear, and never talk too fast. You could narrate a bus schedule, and I'd buy the audiobook. I listen intently and usually before you're done, I am out like a light. But you are not boring! Thats how I discovered your channel. I actually watch the video again the next day. Thanks for your excellent channel!

[@tia2936]

omg high five bestie 🤺

[@adamwells5396]

I do the same thing! So soothing 😌

[@carlos-db5pg]

I would like if he could speak a little slower cause i'm not a native English speaker.

[@dwaynowilli6822]

@@carlos-db5pg for English, he speaks extremely slow

[@crumbfused]

@@carlos-db5pg I'm guessing you haven't been listening to English KZbin for a long time, you'll get used to the speed.

[@maol2038]

“Polymerized crap” is the IUPAC name

[@NickiRusin]

underrated comment

[@doorhanger9317]

It's part of the chemical series between "organic side-shit" and "horrible tar"

[@Qsie]

saw this on the diagram and died lmfao

[@sivasubramaniyanrangaraju4730]

Ngl they should changed it to "fibrous elephant shit" for nomenclature Sounds like it has alot more polymers for some reason

[@rickrolls4928]

Ha ha ha ha ha!!!

[@rosycat4254]

I have no clue what come out of his mouth 99% of the time, but his videos are really addicting to watch

[@RobotHunter1234]

next time someone asks me for a tylenol imma whip out my bottles of aspirin and my chemistry set and make it from scratch just to spite them

[@BillAnt]

At least it will be a fresh batch of Tylenol. xD

[@louisturner8842]

Pretty sure the headache would be gone before you finish

[@ricky107_]

@@louisturner8842 or it get worse because they don't know what's going on

[@arkesh110]

@@ricky107_ **halfway through the reaction** “yeah imma need those aspirins now”

[@Gaming_Legend2]

Converting a fresh big mac into a bk wopper

[@Gaming_Legend2]

Samar Nadra the preparation is different, bk here put the meat in a oven that looks like a microwave, and the burger is thicker but have a smaller diameter, and the meat they use if from different type of cows

[@none.892]

Underrated comment.

[@oscargr_]

@@samarnadra problem is... Where to get a *fresh* big Mac.

[@oscargr_]

@@samarnadra Of course I meant that sarcastically. You simply can not use the word fresh for anything in a fast food restaurant. That no country bans food says nothing about it's freshness.

[@oscargr_]

@@samarnadra maybe you re confusing the word cold for fresh... LoL It's true that some additives are allowed in some countries but not in others. "Yellow number 5" if I remember correctly. You will find that sometimes even things like Mars bars are different in different countries. So yeah... They do replace one additive with another to achieve the same 'function'.... But that s still an additive... I would not call it fresh. It's like when they put "fresh milk" on a pack of pasteurised milk, or "fresh juice" on a bottle of reconstructed OJ. I think it's all legal to the letter of the law, but it's not what common sense says 'fresh' means.

[@bernard2735]

Note: The "filler junk" is actually a carefully designed matrix that produces the correct dissolution profile and bio-availability of the tablet, whilst also ensuring proper binding, distribution of active in the matrix, good compression and ejection from the tablet press, etc., all without having a biologically active impact.

[@aethrya]

whatever you say NERD

[@craigstephenson7676]

So really cool filler junk

[@1e1001]

i believe you but that really sounds like advertizing bs lol

[@stargazer7644]

So you’re saying it is filler junk?

[@Lucy-uf6oi]

@@1e1001 the less "advertising" way of putting it is that the matrix is needed in pills so they don't just get eaten up in your stomach acid, and that they dissolve in the correct part of your body to treat whatever issue you're having!

[@PersonaRandomNumbers]

23:12 "So my original prediction of 30% wasn't that far off, I just kind of misplaced the decimal by two spots" LOL

[@FreezeAU]

The “polymerized crap” label in the diagram at 7:44 made me laugh way more than it ought to have 🤣

[@justmehere_]

same lmaoo, the subtle unprofessionalism, I think Nile Blue edited the video

[@ebbeheddle5221]

Same lol

[@Ehlihr]

just thought you should know, i sent this to my mom who’s a pharmacist, and classically has a video attention span of 2-5 minutes max. that being said she watched the WHOLE thing and loved it!! really great stuff lovin it

[@zoogoo404]

I watched the original videos a while back. This was far less scattershot and easier to digest.

[@benscott3603]

Of course this is the comment he would like. It reads how he speaks

[@TheExperimentChannel878]

i liked the crystals they looked like needles

[@RealRuler2112]

Just wanted to say that I shared this with my mother, who used to be a research chemist 40+ years ago; we both really enjoyed it. =)

[@rockabrand7401]

I love these longer videos. They're so satisfying and fun to watch.

[@mariedeflaviis]

Rockabrand The feeling it's sooo fricking mutual !!!!

[@BillAnt]

It's fascinating to watch those beautiful reactions... problem is when you do it at home it just becomes a total mess (crap as NileRed calls it), if you know what I mean. ;D Basically one step gets f-ed up, then the rest is just a waste of time.

[@krashsite2125]

I've seen you before...

[@ClassickXD]

My sister's going to school for chemistry. I always whip out somthing I've learned from these vidoes. Her face is priceless

[@skygalvan1880]

My sister... I aways whip out something... Her face ... Priceless.

[@aSentientPickle]

someone stop this man

[@DodgerX]

​@@skygalvan1880wait what

[@willyj3321]

I love how passionate he is about chemistry.

[@jeffrendered3564]

That sweet, sweet vacuum filter action!

[@banaan3001]

They're such a bitch to clean though if you have some nasty stuff that's barely soluble in anything.

[@BillAnt]

@banaan3001 < You can always bring out the big guns like acetone, DCM, toluene, xylene, and the rest. ;)

[@louisturner8842]

Rad

[@Kem.840]

banaan3001 said

[@mheermance]

Only being off by an order of magnitude isn't bad, if you are an astronomer.

[@rogerhamilton8029]

he was off by two orders of magnitude

[@Boskibro]

Why do I feel nerdy for laughing at this joke

[@ObjectsInMotion]

Actual final I took in my cosmology class officially accepted an answer within 3 orders of magnitude as correct.

[@BillAnt]

No problem just move the decimal point over to the left by two, problem solved. xD

[@Mr.LaughingDuck]

Yeah, 2 orders of magnitude, meaning he got

[@wesleytownsend8214]

Amazing! Since my wife is a chem professor I am really wanting to brush up and retake some chem classes since I have forgotten so much in the 20 years since graduating from college er... maybe longer, since I was way more interested in playing baseball than retaining this info. You my friend are exceptional.

[@spiritworker903]

The art of turning 200 aspirins into 1/2 tylenol :) For real now, I have a love for chemistry and your videos are pure candy. The right equipment properly used, apt explanations pleasantly delivered, good quality camera, camera work and cuts makes it a joy to watch. My average patience for youtube vids is about 7 minutes, yours watch like professional documentaries. Your videos are excellent fodder for chemistry students. What I find particularly elegant and alchemistic is that your subseqjuent videos keep transforming molecules made in earlier installments, highlighting the dance of functional groups that is applied chemistry. Every molecule can be an end point, starting point and intermediate. A pleasure.

[@RobsMiscellania]

3:48 you should be aware that this is a yield of 94g of a mixture of ASA and salicylic acid. The recrystallization step almost certainly hydrolyzed a substantial amount of your product, not just a few percent. You can confirm this by using the iron (iii) chloride test for phenols. You will obtain a colored adduct with your recrystallized product, confirming the presence of a phenolic hydroxyl group. I know this because I synthesized ASA from salicylic acid and acetic anhydride, and after quenching the reaction mixture and decanting the precipitate, the crude product was recrystallized from boiling water. The melting point was extremely broad, strongly depressed, and was dependent upon the rate of heating. The NMR spectrum was a mess but did demonstrate the aromatic protons around 7.2-7.24ppm, and FTIR showed a broad and intense absorption around 3300/cm, and a sharp, very intense peak around 1710/cm. This is all immaterial, however, since your next step is to hydrolyze any remaining ASA.

[@kotapippen]

What

[@vitamins-and-iron]

thanks to the last sentence, i can summarise as follows: “”

[@TheExperimentChannel878]

the crystals looked cool

[@TheExperimentChannel878]

they were needle shaped

[@purgruv]

Thanks, but I think my headache has gone now…

[@madmike4061]

lmao

[@AmyAnnLand]

Purgruv: Is your profile picture of Chris O'Dowd? If not, you (or the person in your picture) look exactly like him.

[@madelinebitts2766]

@@AmyAnnLand It's pretty obviously Chris O'Dowd with Richard Ayoade's hair poorly photoshopped on and I honestly can't believe you're stupid enough to not immediately realise that. That's hilarious.

[@AmyAnnLand]

@@madelinebitts2766 So you think someone is "stupid" because they don't immediately recognize a random actor? Haha. Okay. As if that's the only determining factor. Forget my degrees and accomplishments; I'm stupid because I'm not immediately certain it's Chris O'Dowd.

[@divyansh1024]

it's Roy with Moss' hair

[@jimcarter6669]

Think I'll just go buy some tylenol.

[@vincevic1062]

Lol

[@jcfnetwork6768]

Lol

[@aveysquarerooted1417]

Lol

[@daucuscarotasativus]

Lol

[@ghoststudios3008]

Lol

[@Draco301293]

You are awesome Nile! I'm so happy that you are succeeding with KZbin!!

[@NileRed]

Thanks!

[@1323GamerTV]

Can you do converting Advil to morphine next? Asking for a friend

[@slayingdeathgaming5537]

1323GamerTV I’m asking for a friend too also a meth tutorreal would be nice 👍

[@GR-ke3fn]

I'm tryna convert ibuprofen to cocaine

[@projectyardinc4256]

Several people are typing...

[@dislexicdicktionary]

@@projectyardinc4256 agreed

[@disorganizedorg]

I want to see street meth into pseudoephedrine.

[@josephinegriner2898]

I’m allergic to Tylenol Let me get my tools

[@cyancoyote7366]

Same here, last time I had taken Tylenol I was covered in red rashes from top to toe. Wasn't a fun 2 weeks.

[@joygao4656]

u sure ur not allergic to the red dye in the type or a filler material?

[@cyancoyote7366]

I had an allergy test done for acetaminophen and it was positive, so no.

[@ace-kz9id]

@@joygao4656 if it was the filler material there allergic too they'd likely have issues with more drugs. since atleast to my knowledge the filler is almost always the same, atleast it is for each brand.

[@hiei248]

This is really cool. As a reference to reality, you created a 210mg rough equivalent of Tylenol? That's wild.

[@kenriven5237]

Neat! Whenever I want to turn my aspirin into tylenol, I just pour some mor into the tylenol bottle. But you're method is much more impressive. Keep up the good work.

[@apodis4900]

Ive learned more about chemistry from your channel than I did from seven years at school with a shitty teacher. Thanks man.

[@nerd1000ify]

Do be careful with the phenol. It's quite hazardous: Around a tablespoon on the skin can be fatal, and the burns it causes are painless so you may not notice that you spilled it on yourself until it's too late. Another concern is that trying to wash it from your skin with water tends to just spread it and increase the area of skin that is damaged- you must instead wash it off with glycerol or a solution of polyethylene glycol. I certainly wouldn't handle that stuff without a lab coat on!

[@italydude515]

Thank God you said something man, I think you saved his life

[@threebloodrubies2132]

I very occasionally work with phenol in the lab I work at so this is actually helpful to know, do you know if it has the ability to move through nitrile gloves? Or do nitrile gloves adequately protect you from it?

[@georgeparkins777]

So there's a kind of coffee maker that used to be used a lot more, called a vacuum pot, which is essentially a self-contained vacuum filtering setup for extracting coffee. It's crazy to me how much a vacuum filtering device like the one used here looks like it when the flask is attached. Basically it consists of a flask-like carafe and a filtering bowl that has a long glass tube that goes down into the flask, with a rubber gasket between the two and one of various kinds of filters in the bottom of the bowl. Water bubbles up into the top where it is mixed with coffee, and eventually air bubbles out through the tube too and is not replaced. With the proper timing, you can develop a really good low pressure environment inside the carafe that sucks the water right out of the coffee grounds as the carafe cools. It's especially cool watching water boil below 100 c in the carafe, if you get the pressure low enough.

[@kayjay7585]

I'm totally intrigued and I googled "coffee vacuum pot" and got: "The vacuum pot, also called the syphon, is a beautiful and flashy way to make great coffee. Invented in Germany in the early 19th century, it's a full immersion brewer that also employs a metal or cloth filter, so you end up with a full-bodied and clean cup. " is that the device? There are some new models for purchase for under 100 bucks!

[@georgeparkins777]

@@kayjay7585 Yes. But I use the kind with a glass filter rod. It's hard to explain what that is but essentially it's a glass rod with a bulge in the middle, and that bulge is covered with bumps or burrs. The rod is held down by suction and the bumps make contact with the bottom of the filtering chamber, forming a coarse filter that allows quite a lot of liquid to flow past it but not medium-grind coffee. The cheap models have a reputation for being fragile. Mine are both 1950's and more resilient. I plan to give them to my children if I ever have any.

[@ToddWPerry]

Thank God for CVS, if I had a headache and needed to go through all of this for Tylenol I’d have a migraine or a brain tumor before I was finished.

[@vornamenachname6300]

I watched the orignal series like 2 or 3 times , but one video covering the basic reactions is pretty nice as well. I think you should do this always: a while after ther series combine it into an video

[@mariedeflaviis]

Finley Franke YAAAAS PLEASE !!!!

[@AdasiekkkTrzeci]

Great video. Here's a couple of points that could be useful for improving the method: (1) I've seen some sources suggest that deprotonation of salicylic acid aids decarboxylation due to the competition for the proton. This should also stop the esterification as the carboxylate is not electrophilic. (2) Before nitration, protect the phenol with either acetic anhydride or (acetic acid + HCl + boil). Do the nitration using c. sulfuric acid as the solvent, and 1.1 equivalents of NaNO3, at -5 degrees Celsius (ice/brine bath), then hydrolyse. It adds two steps; however, this will lead to a selective mononitration to p-nitrophenyl acetate. Also means you avoid forming nasty di(-) and trinitrated products, which will be explosive. Work it up by pouring it onto ice and water and filter in vacuo. The crystals you get out will be almost exclusively p-nitrophenyl acetate. (3) The decomposition of p-aminophenol is due to oxidation/polymerisation in light, but it actually amounts to very little (if you check by NMR etc), so long as you keep it out of solvent. Recryst. from water is the usual way of purification, but I found that toluene works well too (if you can get your hands on it). (4) Recryst for p-aminophenol should be easier than for paracetamol. Source: my own research lab experience

[@nickheyer]

When I want to convert my aspirin to tylenol, I just bring my receipt back to CVS and they swap it out.

[@dannyflo5373]

This is so interesting. I wish I had paid more attention in chemistry

[@Blutwind]

Same but then again in my school the only teacher was a nearly 60 year old witch that was seriously scary (she had mirrored glasses so she could see us students when writtting something on the board) and made chemistry super boring of a subject :/

[@luisp.3788]

@@Blutwind Reminds me of my current chemistry teacher. About 60 year old as well, can't control his anger, and the only thing he gave us to learn so far is texts that are just barely about chemistry that he has turned into these weird concentration practices that are basically just fusing every sentence together and he wants us to write it *perfectly*, and god help those who have a typo that he rates as "stupid". He then lets us write a test, and that's the content of his lessons. He also likes to shout so loud that you can hear it rooms across and he likes to smash objects against furniture (or furniture against furniture) to release anger. I'm glad we never have access to chemicals right now. I wouldn't want to be in a room with him handling corrosive or toxic substances, he'd probably throw it across the room. Oh yeah, he also doesn't like textbooks, so we write down hundreds of pages from his DIY text book (aka incoherent texts as mentioned before). Originally, I was happy I was finally getting chemistry lessons, but I have deep regrets for that wish. Eh, home chemistry is much better anyway.

[@Reivivus]

You only learn this kind of skills in Organic Chemistry class or lab.

[@waharadome]

@@luisp.3788 What the hell, he sounds like a crank

[@luisp.3788]

@@waharadome yep

[@tombombadil9622]

I personally hated chemistry in school but this is just so interesting that i regret paying so little attention to it in school. Thank you !!!

[@citizenclown]

Man, I love your videos. I have always loved chemistry and physics, and ironically, i dropped out of chemistry just due to my attention to 3D CAD/CAM and physics and now photography, and just not able to dedicate the correct amount of time to chemistry that it deserves. Thanks for all you do. I really enjoy seeing your work.

[@ObeyCamp]

"Even though I do stuff like this all the time, it still blows my mind that it's possible to systematically build and degrade things on the molecular level." And this is, I think,, probably the very most basic essence of most people's interest in chemistry. It's mine, anyway. Chemistry like this is essentially a kind of microscopic engineering combined with the performance of what feels like microscopic magic tricks, except you perform them for yourself as opposed to the _macroscopic_ card tricks you'd perform for others. Actually doing organic chemistry like this almost feels like you're playing god in a small way, like these things shouldn't be possible and it's incredible that the possibility even exists, let alone that YOU get to just play around with it and have fun with it AND get paid for it, if you're extra lucky.

[@artifactsofvulkan]

And this is why I want to study Chemistry when I get to Uni!

[@Raz.C]

@@artifactsofvulkan Best of luck, mate. The only advice I'll offer is to ask you to please, be CERTAIN to attend a university with a good chemistry department. I got into the University of Queensland, which is one of the top 50 universities in the world. My degree (BSc double major in Chem) was both fun and interesting, but above all, the labs were astonishingly well stocked. So we got a LOT of top-shelf experience before ever leaving university.

[@casomai]

the basics of organic chemistry: detach any radical from the aromatic ring, and add to taste. then you can do anything with it.

[@PrehistoricPineapple]

no disrespect; i love your videos. this one in particular though i’ve been putting on to fall asleep every night for the last week. it knocks me out like 3 minutes in every time. i like to think that eventually i will learn something.

[@apinchofkatie]

as a pharmacy student, i loved this video. it's so cool seeing the structure change.

[@BillAnt]

Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the *house* Not a creature was stirring, not even a *mouse* Yet one thing was stirring, twas NileRed's low yield Tylenol *crumbs* Ha-ha-ha

[@dislexicdicktionary]

Damn ouch 😂

[@hikiwi]

Would you make a series of Flavor and Odor making videos? Love your channel!

[@NileRed]

I plan to

[@hikiwi]

Amazing! Thanks for the great work

[@TheGayestPersononYouTube]

Seconded! I’d be definitely interested to learn some general tips for esterification especially ones that don’t use the alcohol also as the solvent.

[@thewolfin]

Ingredients: aroma Wow so descriptive

[@lordpinochetuttp3819]

He has, Pyradine, Cadaverine, Trimethylamine, Skatole

[@att6484]

I kept thinking “ok sure you have the phenol test, I’m guessing you don’t have access to a spectrometer for even better proof” and lo and behold

[@nikik1326]

Reminded me of my chem labs. Loved watching and guessing your next steps without stressing for any upcoming exams lol

[@lolroflpmsl]

And this is why I do inorganic chemistry... :P QUANTITATIVE YIELDS!

[@johnperalessyahoo]

As much as i hated chem in school, i love watching your videos.

[@Smashy360]

Your channel has definitely reinvigorated my interest in chemistry. Thanks!

[@user-wu7ug4ly3v]

Next Video: “Crystal Meth from Pseudoephedrine”

[@HexCopper]

I'm taking Orgo 2 at university right now and we are basically learning different reactions and mechanism. I'm now re-watching all your organic synthesis to see how much I can recognize. This honestly is amazing to me being able to come back and thinking how and why you came up with your reaction pathway or possible side products.

[@verainsardana]

im studying organic chemistry its fun to watch things happen instead of cramming reaction :P

[@tabletopjam4894]

I think you should do the Caffeine as a single video, no matter how long it is, I think it’s nice to not have to deal with the wait time for slow internet(which I have half of the time)

[@brendanbassett2525]

next video: "turning Pseudoephedrine into crystal meth"

[@professorxgaming2070]

Your channel has sparked a great intrest in Chemistry with my children and I. Seeing how things connect when you find pathways to connect them. Absolutely brilliant

[@sleepful1917]

i love that purple color at 19:05 - unintended consequence no less

[@TrabberShir]

Request: If you are going to do a long and complicated synthesis chain like this for caffeine, but don't want to do a lot of your normal high production value videos, could you make a B channel where you upload lower production value deeper dive videos for each step as you go? You are probably correct that a summary like this is of more interest to most of your viewers, but the 90+ minutes of your original series seemed to have a lot more reflection on what went wrong where and how you might want to do it different or why you did it the way you did, which is very useful and/or interesting information for some of us.

[@johnnyw8482]

This was interesting to watch. I graduate in May with a B.S. in Chemical Engineering, and my senior project is designing an acetaminophen plant. I didn’t end up getting phenol as a raw material but I know people who did.

[@Daniel-tl6hx]

I feel like regardless of how much you love Chemistry, the clean up sometimes makes it feel like it isnt worth it

[@josistachelbeere]

your videos are really calming for me somehow. And i learn a bunch about my favorite kind of science along the wayy so perfect combination. Thank you for doing these videos! :) they help a lt especially now

[@PrecooledName]

5:08 salicylic acid is a wart remover and acetic acid is in vinegar, does this mean you could make aspirin out of vinegar and wart remover…

[@_Backpack_]

this is how I'll get ahead on my Chem class. no joke, I love these videos.

[@darrellbeets7758]

goddamn this gave me a headache, can i have that paracetamol

[@andrewmorris483]

I wonder what looks he gets when he goes to the pharmacy and just takes a huge amount of meds off the shelf. "I'm in a LOT of pain." or "I'm making Tylenol." or "I swear I'm not making drugs, well I am, but it's not meth."

[@orellaminx3530]

Watching a video like this makes me want one long ass video of you just cleaning all your glass after a project.

[@TrabberShir]

Outside of north america Tylenol is more commonly recognized than acetaminophen. Having grown up in Texas, I default to the generic name and over the last year I have needed to purchase it in Mannheim Germany, Cork Ireland, and Santiago Chile. In all 3 cases the word "acetaminophen" was not recognized but the word "Tylenol" was recognized when I asked where to find it (although in Santiago that was likely a result of Tylenol having a more standardized pronunciation globally).

[@invencible33]

You should had tried with paracetamol, it is more likely to be called that way.

[@TrabberShir]

Thanks, next time I need some will try that.

[@mariedeflaviis]

Well at least in Venezuela , we ask for acetaminophen or paracetamol. Tylenol is also found but it's not as common as the other two.

[@zockertwins]

In Germany I have only ever heard of paracetamol

[@daveprice5911]

Trabber Shir Yeah, usually paracetamol is most recognised

[@Gorboror]

24:41 Why I watch your videos, even though, a lot of the times, I don't understand it.

[@nicholi8933]

This was great. The nitration step is terrible. Still gives me nightmares from my old classes.

[@azmah8730]

i also got ptsd from my old classes

[@BillAnt]

Yeah that step was total crap, but he did mange to clean it up with activated carbon. ;D

[@owenjacobs6353]

Just had a mental breakdown check. Just wanna let you know, your voice is very comforting to me. i dunno why, but it is.

[@wheremakeysat]

This takes me back to organic chem lab. Love your content, keep it up!

[@thelivingend127]

I'm curious about your cleaning process. How do you clean everything?

[@hoaithunguyen4473]

Look for his other chanel, NileBlue. He post clean up vids there.

[@matthewgraci3509]

19:27 he turned grape soda into ginger ale

[@ajreukgjdi94]

22:55 "I probably lost most of my product doing the multiple recrystallizations." *Proceeds to show mathematical proof that he lost most of the product in step 4.

[@GodlikeIridium]

Yeah... The decarboxylation and the nitration are both very inefficient. But the yield of the acetylation in the end really surprised me. But is probably caused by the small scale and the 3 recristallisations. Really nice video. A similiar video making caffeine would be nice.

[@otterxtotter]

i love nile cause he is the epitome of "you dont have to do it perfectly, just do it if you want to do it." im so inspired by him. think about doing something impossible and see it through, ask questions and make mistakes, get there in the end. i love you nile. youre a true inspiration.

[@1stPCFerret]

Fascinating! Although, if I get a headache, I'll just take the Aspirin. 😁

[@user-zr8bo5le5p]

For my next trick I'm going to boil water and turn it into ice.

[@picodellamirandol4418]

Nile, I'm a big fan of you but I'm very annoyed by the "it's just a bunch of filler junk" thing about the excipients you said at 1:30. It's not just a bunch of filler junk, it's work, it's research that in some cases can permit the explanation of the therapeutic potential of the active molecule. I respect you for your work as a chemist, pay respect for the technologists.

[@elisabettabianchini290]

Clap clap

[@Owen_loves_Butters]

The filler may be necessary, but it's still basically junk for what he's doing.

[@nomekop777]

I've been slowly binging your transformations playlist, and just before starting this video, i sprained my ankle. So I could really use some of that stuff right about now

[@bellabear653]

Kids today are so lucky to have your videos and teachers especially in high school should take advantage of this to inspire young minds.

[@jackscully7986]

7:43 "polymerized crap" lmao

[@eisvogel.1481]

KZbin made me watch an asperin ad before this video lol

[@StuffBudDuz]

Turns out creating Tylenol is quite a headache.

[@AlbertoAlexanderRodriguez]

By the time you finally came with the tylenol, the headache is far gone

[@davidhunt7519]

At about 13:40. It is slightly disturbing that the desired product is in the dark flask on the left. Would there be any way to recover phenol from the distilled ortho nitrophenol, and use it to make more product?

[@tomahan044]

I never knew aspirin is not the same as paracetamol. In The Netherlands we often use the words interchangeably meaning the same thing, which is probably paracetamol.

[@NileRed]

hmm interesting. Yeah, definitely not the same thing. If they were, this video would have been way shorter :p

[@demoniack81]

Here in Italy tylenol is known as Tachipirina, while Aspirin is, well, Aspirina. They're definitely not the same drug, although in a pinch they can be used somewhat interchangeably as they both have antipyretic and antiinflammatory properties.

[@yatagarasu1495]

propably because people are just like "does someone have an aspirin", meaning they have a headache, so someone hands them a paracetamol pill, which does the same job

[@thewolfin]

Also aspirin is relatively safe for hangovers but paracetamol definitely not.

[@josephmorneau4339]

Tylenol is not in the NSAID category of drugs and does not have anti-inflammatory properties. Just an FYI.

[@devinsn2]

I know that what youve done here, I can't do and it's amazing. That being said, I can't help but think of " this coke tastes like pepsi"

[@danielwalker26]

Would love to see you explain how a flame less ration heater, like from an MRE, works then make one of your own.

[@lekoman]

That's a super simple reaction. It's just oxidizing a ton of really fine iron shavings with water. Basically, the fineness of the iron shavings means tons of surface area, so the reaction can happen really quickly. You're making a bunch of rust happen really fast, and rusting is exothermic so it gets hot. Bingo-bango, you've got hot food.

[@forkify908]

I love how half of the time he is speaking like it’s a lab report/summary and the other half is first person.

[@SilntObsvr]

I watched this because I enjoy chemical analog photography, and sometimes make a developer from acetaminophen. In fact, the developing agent I make (p-aminophenol) was your last intermediate before the acetylization. Much easier and better yield for my purposes, however, to start with commercial acetaminophen and cleave off the acetyl group in sodium hydroxide solution, then add sodium sulfite (antioxidant) and wait for the de-acetylization to complete to wind up with a developer that works like commercial Rodinal -- and, if you can buy acetaminophen cheaply, costs less than ten cents a roll to develop black and white film. Sure wish I could buy acetaminophen in powder form by the 500g or so. Doesn't seem to be available in the US, though. I don't find the tableting material (starches and waxes, mostly) causes problems in the developer, though -- most of it seems to break down in the fairly strong sodium hydroxide solution.

[@yanthemonser]

i also made my own rodinal from paracetamol and my own fixer from sodium thiosulfate. analog photography is more fun when you can made your own chemicals.

[@myronwilde491]

Interesting synthesis. It's the most precious Tylenol you'll ever have! This video is a great mix of innovative low tech solutions and good lab skills. Unfortunately your yield really supports the saying "a day in the library saves you a week at the bench." You made a bunch of rookie mistakes choosing when and how to execute your steps. Thats why you got the low yield. One thing I found particularly strange was your choice of reduction conditions. You are kind of halfway between two different types of reductions using research lab type reagents, whereas you could have done a dissolving metal reduction easily with household stuff. Be really careful with your Palladium on carbon waste! Once its dry, or combined with just a bit of paper or organic solvent you can have a fire.

[@KnakuanaRka]

Myron Wilde Could you be a bit more specific about what was wrong and what he could have done better?

[@RobsMiscellania]

@@KnakuanaRka I'm trying to remember what he did without watching the video again - if I remember right, he used sodium borohydride in a basic solution with palladium on carbon. Interesting choice. Looked like the reduction went okay enough, but Myron is right, the number of steps, such as where he filtered it and the color changed during, so he refiltered it and it changed again - product was being destroyed every moment there. Other things, mechanical losses, solvent losses, and so on, could contribute to low yield. Although I'd have been happy to get two or three grams out of the initial investment of 100g of precursor. It is several synthetic steps, after all.

[@jasonmyneni8605]

Next up, let’s turn pseudoephedrine to that crystal stuff.

[@KB-ke3fi]

Lets turn that red flower into Heroin

[@shiryo_]

Sometimes I wander how fast I would die from drinking some of the things you show in your videos

[@liv97497]

But some of the things look so appealing haha

[@shiryo_]

@@liv97497 ikr some of them have those pretty colors and look like they have great texture I wish they weren't deadly

[@pedrobg97]

Wow, that NMR it's amazing

[@Xenon3.6.9]

That's one is the one of most lovely project, NILE RED.

[@science.and.beyond]

Next episode: Turning melatonin into crystal meth

[@toadfrommariokart64]

probably a lot easier to turn it into caffeine

[@toadfrommariokart64]

(well no they're probably equally difficult)

[@ughpeople8668]

if you want crystal meth, used ADHD meds like adderall

[@Jesse78]

@@ughpeople8668 Or Psudeophedrine (meth but backwards at the molecular level)