Otakar Leminger

Otakar Leminger was a Czech chemist known for work in the area of psychopharmacology.^[1]^[2]^[3]^[4] He is more specifically known for the synthesis of the monoamine oxidase inhibitor (MAOI) antidepressant phenelzine (phenethylhydrazine) with Emil Votoček in 1932^[5]^[2] and for the synthesis and testing of several scaline psychedelics and related drugs including escaline, proscaline, allylescaline, 3C-P, 3-methoxy-4-ethoxyphenethylamine (MEPEA), and 3-methoxy-4-allyloxyphenethylamine (MAPEA) in 1972.^[1]^[3]^[4] He worked in Prague and lived in Ústí nad Labem in northern Czechoslovakia.^[1] Leminger worked in industry for years before publishing on psychedelics in his retirement.^[1] Alexander Shulgin reviewed Leminger's work on psychedelics in his 1991 book PiHKAL (Phenethylamines I Have Known and Loved), by which point Leminger had passed away.^[1]

OccupationChemist

KnownforSynthesis of phenelzine, scaline psychedelics and related drugs, and other contributions

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Otakar Leminger
Occupation	Chemist
Known for	Synthesis of phenelzine, scaline psychedelics and related drugs, and other contributions

References

[1]
Shulgin, Alexander; Shulgin, Ann (September 1991). PiHKAL: A Chemical Love Story. Berkeley, California: Transform Press. ISBN 0-9630096-0-5. OCLC 25627628. "[Allylescaline (AL)] was first explored in Prague by Leminger. He provided only the synthetic details and the statement that it was the most active compound that he had studied, with activity at 20 milligrams, with perceptual changes, color enhancement, and difficult dreams during sleep that night. Some effects persisted for more than 12 hours. Dosages above 35 milligrams remain unexplored." [...] "I got a call out of absolutely nowhere, from a Stanislov Wistupkin, that he had discovered a number of new psychedelic drugs which he would like to share with me. Two of them were simple phenethylamines, one with an ethoxy group at the 4-position, and one with an allyloxy group there. Both, he said, were mood elevators active between 100 and 300 milligrams. One of them was this material, here called MEPEA, and the other one was 3-methoxy-4-allyloxyphenethylamine, or MAPEA. When I did meet him in person, he gave me a most remarkable publication which had been authored some ten years earlier, by a person named Leminger, now dead. It was all in Czech, but quite unmistakably, right there on the third page, were the structures of MEPEA and MAPEA, and the statement that they were active at between 100 and 300 milligrams. I have not yet made the allyloxy compound, but I feel that it too might be a gentle mood elevator similar to the ethoxy." [...] "In the Czechoslovakian publication that presented MEPEA and MAPEA. there were descriptions of escaline (E), proscaline (P), and the allyloxy analogue (AL). These are all active in man, and have been entered elsewhere. This is the only published material dealing with psychedelic drugs I have ever been able to find, from the laboratory of Otakar Leminger. What sort of man was this chemist? He worked for years in industry, and only at the time of his retirement did he publish this little gem. He lived at Usti, directly north of Praha, on the Labe river (which is called by the better known name, the Elbe, as soon as it enters Germany). Might there be other treasures that he had discovered, and never published? Was young Wistupkin a student of his? Are there unrecognized notes of Otakar Leminger sitting in some farm house attic in Northern Czechoslovakia? I extend my heartfelt salute to an almost unknown explorer in the psychedelic drug area."
[2]
Votoček, E.; Leminger, O. (1932). "Sur la β-phenoéthylhydrazine". Collection of Czechoslovak Chemical Communications. 4: 271–281. doi:10.1135/cccc19320271. ISSN 0010-0765. Retrieved 24 May 2026.
[3]
Otakar Leminger (1972). "Příspěvek k chemii v jádře alkoxylovaných β-fenoetylaminů – I" [A Contribution to the chemistry of alkoxylated phenethylamines – part 1]. Chemický průmysl. 22: 496–.
[4]
Otakar Leminger (1972). "Příspěvek k chemii v jádře alkoxylovaných β-fenoetylaminů – II: O některých v jádře alkoxylovaných β-fenoetylaminech, resp. jejich sulfátech" [A Contribution to the chemistry of alkoxylated phenethylamines – part 2: On some core-alkoxylated β-phenethylamines and their sulfates]. Chemický průmysl. 22: 553–557. Archived from the original on 17 February 2026.
[5]
Hoffman GR, Olson MG, Schoffstall AM, Estévez RF, Van den Eynde V, Gillman PK, Stabio ME (December 2023). "Classics in Chemical Neuroscience: Selegiline, Isocarboxazid, Phenelzine, and Tranylcypromine". ACS Chem Neurosci. 14 (23): 4064–4075. doi:10.1021/acschemneuro.3c00591. PMID 37966854.

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