How to make cadaverine (the smell of death)

2014-04-19

[public] 158K views, 2.57K likes, 22.0 dislikes audio only

Warning: Cadaverine is absolutely putrid and it taints everything that it comes into contact with. It also does not wash off too easily.

This video was more of a proof of concept than an actual synthesis. The amount of lysine and sodium bicabonate used was relatively arbitrary.

In this video I use two methods to produce cadaverine:

1. Basic heating: This is not very efficient and burns a lot of the cadaverine.

2. Destructive distillation: I use an improvised destructive distillation setup. This method is much more efficient because it is carried out under a nitrogen atmosphere. Higher temperatures can be used without risking burning.

I honestly did not proceed further in the second method because of the putrid smell. A lot more cadaverine was produced and the smell was making me nauseous.

The lysine hydrochloride can be purchased from health supplement stores. I got 250g for about $17 shipped from www.purebulk.com