The low configurational stability of two model compounds, the anorectic drug amfepramone and one of its basic metabolites, rac-cathinone, was examined for its mechanism and kinetics. Assuming a common intermediate for chiral inversion and deuteration, the rates of racemization were determined by the indirect method of proton-deuterium substitution monitored by H-1-NMR. The rate of racemization increased linearily with increasing pD. At a pD of 7.4, the rate of racemization of both aminoketones was markedly dependent on buffer concentration, indicating a. mechanism of general-base catalysis. The reactions were some five to six times faster in phosphate buffers than in hydroxylamine buffers of identical molarity. Amfepramone racemized about five times faster than the primary amine cathinone. One implication of these findings is that amfepramone and cathinone may be subject in vivo to chiral inversion catalyzed by numerous endogenous bases. As a result, it will be misleading to extrapolate rates of inversion expected in plasma from those measured in buffer solutions. (C) 1995 Wiley-Liss, Inc