4-benzylpiperidine 4-benzylpiperidine 4-benzylpiperidine is a drug and research chemical used in scientific studies. it acts as a monoamine releasing agent with 20- to 48-fold selectivity for releasing dopamine versus serotonin. it is most efficacious as a releaser of norepinephrine, with an ec50 of 109/41.4/5246nm for da/ne/5ht, respectively . it has a fast onset of action and a short duration. it also functions as a monoamine oxidase inhibitor (maoi) with preference for mao-a. 4-benzylpiperidinelegal statuslegal status de: the npsg do not apply to this substance, because it is not a 2-phenylethylamine derivative uk: under psychoactive substances act identifiers iupac name 4-(phenylmethyl)piperidine cas number31252-42-3 npubchem cid31738chemspider29432 yuniijdf1t4667schemblchembl144129 ycomptox dashboard (epa)dtxsid3067603 echa infocard100.045.926 chemical and physical dataformulac12h17nmolar mass175.275 g·mol−13d model (jsmol)interactive image smiles c1cnccc1cc2=cc=cc=c2 inchi inchi=1s/c12h17n/c1-2-4-11(5-3-1)10-12-6-8-13-9-7-12/h1-5,12-13h,6-10h2 ykey:abgxadjdtpffsz-uhfffaoysa-n y ny (what is this?) (verify) synthesis 4-cyanopyridine can be reacted with toluene to give 4-benzylpyridine. catalytic hydrogenation of the pyridine ring then completes the synthesis.