Talk:Phenethylamine

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Regarding the term "structural formula", although I am not a chemist it is my understanding that this is the correct term (I am still open to be corrected if you think I'm mistaken in what follows). "Chemical structure" is kind of synonymous but really refers to the structure itself rather than a 2D (or 3D) diagram of the structure. The distinction is important because a structural formula is an incomplete representation since it doesn't specify the full 3D geometry, of even which optical isomer is being referred to. I don't have any books handy but a quick web search find support for this:

http://www.cartage.org.lb/en/themes/Sciences/Chemistry/Organicchemistry/StructuralFormulas/StructuralFormulas.htm http://dl.clackamas.cc.or.us/ch106-01/strform.htm http://sci-toys.com/ingredients/how_to_read_structural_formulas.html

The entries for chemical structure and structural formula need to be clarified. --Rkundalini 07:08, 24 Apr 2004 (UTC)

Sorry, I must have been high on phenethylamine when I made this change. :)

Delta G 13:11, 24 Apr 2004 (UTC)

Contents 1 Chemistry 2 Love drug 3 Etymology of the word 'Phenethylamine' 4 More on Etymology

[edit] Chemistry

"Phenethylamine (PEA) is an aromatic amine (...)": it is not, it is an aliphatic amine. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 87.5.169.213 (talk) 12:58, 2 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Love drug

I have removed the claim that some "scientists" believe phenethylamine is implicated in feeling in love. As far as I know this is almost certainly false speculation that's only been promulgated because it makes for a cute story for journalists who like to pretend that scientists understand everything including the chemical formula for love ;). See e.g. the PiHKAL entry for phenethylamine [1]. If you can find some verifiable sources saying who originally made this claim and what others have said about it then put it back in the article, otherwise it should stay out IMO. --Russell E 22:10, 15 January 2006 (UTC)

Although a rocket scientist and not expert on polypeptides, I want to add to this discussion that PEA or the phenethylamines do appear to be involved in libido enhancement. So, although scientific proof may be lacking, I think it is fair to say that this is some of the most interesting scientific research going on today, and is likely to change the way we look at love and human emotional interactions. We dont have to wait for science to "prove" something to understand that these chemicals obviously are involved in our feelings, and may be the major determinator of our behavior. This is not dull and dry science indeed! 71.34.234.169 22:50, 3 February 2006 (UTC) Duane Barker

Although certain phenethylamines such as dopamine play a key role in increasing feelings of empathy and love, I don't think the "love molecule" sentence in the beginning of the article adds anything of importance to the issue (and as such, I have removed it.) Refault 08:32, 10 May 2006 (UTC)

Some mention should be added to the article, stating the claimed relationship and that it's not considered solid science, if only for the sake of the many who come to Wikipedia to look it up and don't know how Talk pages work. That way, they get *something*. 208.69.216.50 20:43, 20 March 2007 (UTC)

There is a large amount of scholarly literature pointing to phenylethylamine as one of the chemicals that are important in love. Are these all mis-citing a single source? I think someone knowledgeable should survey the literature and see if it's legit. If it's not, then we're doing a disservice to not include this material in this article. Either way, there is so much literature mentioning the relationship that even if it is false, it deserves mention in this article (along with whatever reasons why people reached false conclusions). Cazort (talk) 13:05, 24 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Etymology of the word 'Phenethylamine'

It is interesting to note that the word 'Phenethylamine' contains concatenations of the words (or rather chemicals) phenyl, ethyl and amine. I think this fact should be included into the article. Thank you. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.79.41.152 (talk) 23:48, 7 September 2007 (UTC)

I disagree... The etymology of a huge majority of organic compounds is made up of the different functional groups, but I don't believe it is worth mentioning for them either. In the chembox you will notice "Chemical name 2-Phenylethylamine", the wikilink describes how compounds are named, so that it need not be mentioned in every chemical article. --Mark PEA 15:15, 8 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] More on Etymology

What about mentioning the fact that the word Amphetamine is composed of the following components:

[a]lpha[m]ethyl[ph]enyl[et]thyl[amine]

Following this model, Phenethylamine is a [ph][et][amine] as are all substituted Phenethylamines. As the word Amphetamine has such a stigma attached to it in our culture I'd like to see the point made that the Catecholamine neurotransmitters/hormones Adrenaline, Noradrenaline and Dopamine are also Phetamines and share many sympathomimetic attributes with Amphetamines. I just find this line of reasoning very interesting, but I don't feel qualified to edit the article text myself.

Special:Contributions/Sturu (talk) 21:51, 24 January 2008 (UTC)