[ExI] good bexarotene article

[spike]

>... On Behalf Of The Avantguardian
Subject: Re: [ExI] good bexarotene article

----- Original Message -----
> From: spike <spike66 at att.net>
>>...  What if we could find the company that makes 
> reagent grade Bexarotene and buy it not as a medication but as rather 
> a flavoring for beer?  Or rather as mouse food?  ...

>...Reagent grade is usually only about 99% pure, Spike. That 1% impurity
can be unconsumed reactants, products of side reactions, bacterial
endotoxins, or practically anything...

Ja, I specified reagent grade because it typically costs less than a tenth
as much as pharmaceutical grade.  If it is 99% pure, then 1% of 75 mg is
less than a milligram of impurities.  It would be dissolved in alcohol,
which is likely to slay any bacterial contaminants or other microbeasts in
there.  My contention is that there aren't many substances likely to do much
harm at less than a milligram a day.

I checked the MSDS and other sources, learned that the common catalysts in
the production of reagent grade bexarotene are aluminum trichloride and
sodium hydroxide, neither of which are toxic at these levels.  At much
higher levels, aluminum trichloride causes skin and eye irritation.  Sodium
hydroxide is used in hand soap.

>...So I would discourage anybody from using reagent-grade on a
human without having a drug chemist clean it up for you...

Hmmm, if one can afford it sure, but I bet I could clean reagent grade
bexarotene with only amateur chemistry knowledge.  A little hydrochloric
acid will neutralize the sodium hydroxide but this is unnecessary anyways,
there is plenty of HCl in the stomach.  Sodium hydroxide and hydrochloric
acid produce sodium chloride (table salt) and water.  I can dissociate and
precipitate that alum trichlor, but that isn't necessary either, for in this
form and at these amounts the body wouldn't know or care if it is present.

Thanks everyone for all the bexarotene chatter.  I propose keeping in effect
the open season on the topic until Friday, which is good in my case for I
have posted my brains out on this topic and I am not even finished yet.

spike