Making an old pain and fever medication

Today I will be making acetanilide, which was historically used as a pain reliever. It was discovered in 1886 and sold under the brand name Antifebrin by the company Kalle & Co. It has since been completely replaced by paracetamol/acetaminophen.

Video links:

I followed the pathway sodium benzoate -- benzene -- nitrobenzene --- aniline. All of those videos are on my channel

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[SimonBoshoff]

Love your work! How about doing an "end of the world"-medicines series. You know.. how to make 5 or so of the most basic medicines.

[KnolltopFarms]

You know...half of the enjoyment I receive from your videos comes from the thought that you are really enjoying yourself on screen...or more precisely, on mic. You also have a great tone and syllabic tempo, so it adds to the easy enjoyment, thank you.

Your average farmer.

[kalolord]

Just a heads up for when you make para red: I've made it twice in the lab, and it is a VERY STRONG dye! It stains everything, expect yourself to be scrubbing your equipment for weeks after making it.

[vanhetgoor]

When I see you explaining and showing us how it is done, I get more respect for the chemists from one hundred years ago, who did all this work without modern equipment. Maybe they had a bunsen-burner, a thermometer and a scale. And a good set of brains of course!

[Obi-Wan_Kenobi]

I am very thankful for the modern medicine that exists today being both invented and easy to access. Thanks to them, my life is so much safer compared to the billions of humans who lived before me and I am incredibly grateful.

[erikdimitrov]

Finally some complicated organic synthesis again. I started getting a little bit bored from these extractions. Please do more videos like this one.

[cbjonsey]

when i saw the title i was like he’s talking about heroine”

[BrunoDantasS.]

Me before knowing NileRed: "And i HATE Chemistry"
Me after knowing NileRed: "And i LOVE Chemistry"

[MetallicAGirl]

Does anyone else have absolutely no knowledge in chemistry but love watching these videos? Nile could just make something that a child could make but I’d be impressed 😂

[elitearbor]

Those are absolutely gorgeous crystals. Chemistry can be so aesthetically pleasing at times!

[rogvirstormblade]

your videos are what made me want to follow a career in chemistry, just finished my first semester of college on the path to becoming a chemical engineer.


thank you

[toxikspeaks]

Nilered, Thank you for the videos that you make, as someone who started chemistry about a year ago and has been teaching myself as of recent, these videos are very helpful.

i find medicines in general to be incredibly interesting and i love how right off the bat i learned something i didnt know.
I have some knowledge of old medicines but not near the knowledge it seems you have.

Keep up the amazing work, you are an inspiration.

don't worry though, im going back to school here soon to finish the degree.

[thenina]

If your reaction is carried out in acidic conditions you could purify your aniline with activated charcoal. I find doing vacuum distillations very boring and time demanding.
I love your Channel! Please keep it up!!!

[carterplasek]

I love these organic synthesis videos, thank you for the great content!

[gavinli]

Huh. Acetanilide. I vaguely recognize that from Dr. Stone. It was one of Senku’s intermediary steps into making sulfanilamide to cure pneumonia in a stone age tech world.

[Reth_Hard]

Still waiting for this LSD synthesis video...

[RockyMountainBlades]

It’s just interesting how the first people to come up with involved reactions like this one were just like “woah i created some crazy chemical looking thing, i wonder if i can use it as a pain medication?”

[BLODSWIPER]

Would be cool to see you try and make medicine made out of raw herbs / plants.

[ColinRies]

I think that Doug's Lab Acetic Anhydride method is pretty cool, but really dangerous and requires some specialized apparatus. The classic Acetyl Chloride (can be easily bought here) and Sodium Acetate method is much easier to do.
Nice video anyway, I always wonder how you (and NurdRage, ChemPlayer, Doug's Lab, ...) come up with such projects. Speaking of Para Red, got any plans to make actual Nile Red? I ask because Nile Red is a really cool dye with very interesting properties.

[gigglysamentz]

Waaah, you even rinse the glass rod, that's dedication to yield XD