β-Ketoamphetamine (cathinones)

Substituted cathinones are a chemical class of organic compounds derived from the core amphetamine structure. Cathinones are the beta-keto analogues of amphetamines, sharing the alpha-methylphenethylamine backbone but adding a ketone group at the beta carbon of the sidechain, the carbon adjacent to the benzene ring. Aside from this beta-keto group, members differ in the same ways amphetamines do, through ring substituents and groups on the amine nitrogen. Most cathinones behave as stimulants or entactogens, and the beta-keto group is what relates each one to its corresponding amphetamine.