# Adrenochrome in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adrenochrome-in-fear-and-loathing-in-las-vegas/441135>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [March 12, 2008, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adrenochrome-in-fear-and-loathing-in-las-vegas/441135 "2008-03-12T18:23:12Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![ArmenE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e9bcb4/32.png) [@ArmenE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ArmenE)\
**Post date:** [March 12, 2008, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adrenochrome-in-fear-and-loathing-in-las-vegas/441135/1 "2008-03-12T18:23:12Z")

</div>

There is a part in H. S. Thompson’s Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas where he mentions taking adrenochrome as a drug, and further, that it can only be extracted from a living (though dead shortly thereafter?) body’s adrenal gland. I have three questions:

1. Is it true that there is no adrenochrome in adrenal glands extracted from corpses?
2. If you really do need a living donor - it doesn’t need to be a human one, right? I read the book about ten years ago, but I still remember being puzzled by that bit of it. You can just cut up a pig or whatever, right?
3. Can an organism possessing an adrenal gland survive without one if it excised through surgery?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\
**Post date:** [March 12, 2008, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adrenochrome-in-fear-and-loathing-in-las-vegas/441135/2 "2008-03-12T18:43:02Z")

</div>

[QUOTE=ArmenE]  
2) If you really do need a living donor…  
[/QUOTE]

[Synthesis here:](http://books.google.com/books?id=X2EyLsG4bcUC&pg=PA234&lpg=PA234&dq=%223+hydroxy+1+methyl+5%22+%226+indolinedione%22+synthesis&source=web&ots=nRGZuDv9QI&sig=EvZ-2u7Maucu5ruN9Dx15zuZcvs&hl=en#PPA235,M1)

> [@](#):
>
> A suspension containing 1 part by weight of adrenalin and 2 to 6 parts by weight of silver oxide in 150 to 250 parts by weight of methanol or ethanol is stirred for about 10 minutes. The alcoholic adrenochrome solution obtained is separated by…

You can also buy the stuff from Sigma. No warm bodies, other than a lab tech, are required.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![scm1001](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c4cdca/32.png) [@scm1001](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scm1001)\
**Post date:** [March 12, 2008, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adrenochrome-in-fear-and-loathing-in-las-vegas/441135/3 "2008-03-12T20:46:56Z")

</div>

my WAG is that Hunter made that bit up. Adrenochrome appears to have some mild hallucenogenic properties, but seems nothing special

“In the DVD commentary, director Terry Gilliam admits that his and Thompson’s portrayal is fictional hyperbole.” from [Adrenochrome - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adrenochrome)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\
**Post date:** [March 12, 2008, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adrenochrome-in-fear-and-loathing-in-las-vegas/441135/4 "2008-03-12T20:50:57Z")

</div>

Hyperbole or not, that was the most hysterically funny scene in the book.