Just stumbled couple of days ago with this topic, which refers to a drug called adrenochrome. I don’t know if it is a legend, fiction or what but it makes a lot of sense if this kind of drug can be harnessed from terrified people and children.
So the basic idea is to torture or almost fear someone to death and on that dying moment of that person the blood is filled with this adrenalin compound. Then they kill the person and collect the adreanlized blood and drink it or they can separate this so called adrenochrome stuff from the blood and purify it.
Bad thing is that this stuff seems to be more pure in babies so they have to kill them to harvest this elite-drug. This makes a lot of sense, because of ancient blood rituals and vampire stories. Makes sense that so called vampire frightens the victim and then kills it and then drinks it blood.
So is it real or just a fiction… it’s up to you. Here are description from wikipedia and some videos about the topic:
Adrenochrome is a chemical compound with the molecular formula C9H9NO3 produced by the oxidation of adrenaline (epinephrine). The derivative carbazochrome is a hemostatic medication. Despite a similarity in chemical names, it is unrelated to chrome or chromium.
In vivo, adrenochrome is synthesized by the oxidation of epinephrine. In vitro, silver oxide (Ag2O) is used as an oxidizing agent. Its presence is detected in solution by a pink color. The color turns brown upon polymerization.
Effect on the brain
Several small-scale studies (involving 15 or fewer test subjects) conducted in the 1950s and 1960s reported that adrenochrome triggered psychotic reactions such as thought disorder, derealization, and euphoria. Researchers Abram Hoffer and Humphry Osmond claimed that adrenochrome is a neurotoxic, psychotomimetic substance and may play a role in schizophrenia and other mental illnesses. In what they called the “adrenochrome hypothesis”, they speculated that megadoses of vitamin C and niacin could cure schizophrenia by reducing brain adrenochrome. However, these hypotheses have never been scientifically accepted; adrenochrome is not currently believed to have any psychedelic properties.
Adrenochrome is unscheduled by the Controlled Substances Act in the United States, but if sold as a supplement, sales must conform to U.S. supplement laws. If sold for consumption as a food or drug, sales are regulated by the FDA.
In popular culture
- Author Hunter S. Thompson mentioned adrenochrome in his book Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. The adrenochrome scene also appears in the novel’s film adaptation. In the DVD commentary, director Terry Gilliam admits that his and Thompson’s portrayal is a fictional exaggeration. In fact, Gilliam insists that the drug is entirely fictional and seems unaware of the existence of a substance with even a similar name.
Hunter S. Thompson also mention adrenochrome in his book Fear and Loathing on the campaign Trail 72. In the footnotes in chapter April, page. 140 he quote: “‘It was sometime after midnight in a ratty hotel room and my memory of the conversation is haze, due to massive ingestion of booze, fatback, and forty cc’s of adrenochrome’“
- The harvesting of an adrenal gland from a live victim to obtain adrenochrome for drug abuse is a plot feature in the first episode “Whom the Gods would Destroy”, of Series 1 of the British TV series Lewis (2008).
- In Anthony Burgess‘ 1962 novel A Clockwork Orange, “drencrom” (presumably the Nadsat term for adrenochrome) is listed as one of the potential drugs that can be added to milk-plus (milk laced with a drug of the consumer’s choice).
- In 1982 UK rock band The Sisters of Mercy released the double A-side single Body Electric/Adrenochrome.