Mandelin Reagent Color Chart: How to Read Results

Mandelin has a reputation problem. It spent years being sold as “the ketamine reagent,” and that is the one job it is no longer trusted to do. MDMA and MDA turn dark brown to black, methamphetamine turns olive to yellow-green while amphetamine gives nothing, and ketamine is listed as no reaction on DanceSafe’s current chart. Mandelin is a second opinion on a Marquis result, not a test you run alone.

The color chart

Mandelin is ammonium vanadate in concentrated sulfuric acid. It starts light orange and goes cloudy yellow after three or four weeks, which is normal aging rather than expiry. Shake the bottle before each use and read inside the first 45 to 60 seconds.

These are the expected reactions published in DanceSafe’s current instruction pamphlet.

Three readings do most of the work. Dark brown-black means a methylenedioxy compound, MDMA or MDA. Olive-green points at methamphetamine. No reaction covers a wide field that includes cocaine, amphetamine, LSD, ketamine and a lot of inert powder, which is why a blank result rules things out and confirms nothing.

What no color on this chart carries is dose or purity, and nothing here sees fentanyl. A dark reaction also hides a lighter one, so a second substance can sit in the sample and produce no visible change at all.

Why Mandelin is no longer the ketamine reagent

This is the part worth getting right, because plenty of older charts and product listings still say otherwise.

Traditional forensic references list ketamine as orange to reddish-brown with Mandelin, and for years that made it the default ketamine reagent in home kits. Practice moved on. DanceSafe’s current pamphlet lists ketamine as no reaction across Marquis, Simon’s, Froehde, Mandelin, Mecke and Ehrlich’s, with Morris as the single numbered test. Their wording on the ketamine kit is blunt: Mandelin has been used for ketamine in the past, but it is often inconsistent and produces similar reactions with many other drugs.

Morris is the standard single-reagent ketamine test now. It comes in two bottles, both of which go on the same sample, and you stir for a full 20 seconds before reading. Ketamine typically turns it violet, though the shade wanders toward blue-purple. A Morris non-reaction is sea foam green, so a sample that is too small gives you a green-tinted purple that looks wrong, and the fix is more sample rather than a guess. For a result to count as unexpected, the color has to sit clearly outside the purple range.

Liebermann works as an optional second reagent on ketamine, giving a very pale yellow that can be hard to see at all.

So if ketamine is what you are checking, the DanceSafe ketamine testing kit is the purchase, not Mandelin. Buy Mandelin for what it is good at, which is confirming a Marquis result on MDMA or an amphetamine. More on the drug itself in our ketamine harm reduction guide.

Running it

1. Shake the bottle. Mandelin settles, and its own color shifts with age more than other reagents do.
2. Use a small, finely crushed sample. Around 10 mg on a clean, dry, white, non-porous surface. A ceramic spot plate keeps separate tests from bleeding into each other. Fresh sample for each reagent, never a second reagent onto a used spot.
3. One drop, dropper not touching the sample. Hold the cap upside down in your other hand so it picks up nothing.
4. Put a drop of Mandelin on its own beside the test spot. Because the reagent’s color changes over weeks, that blank is the only reliable way to see what actually changed.
5. Read within 45 to 60 seconds under white light, against the printed chart.
6. Neutralize with baking soda, wash, dry. Reagents are corrosive. Wear gloves.

Four ways people misread it

Expecting orange for ketamine. Older charts still show it. Orange on something sold as ketamine is a reason to run Morris, not a confirmation.

Reading late. Every reagent drifts toward brown or black on its own. A color that only arrives at two or three minutes is not a result.

Mistaking filler for meth. Sugar gives an olive-gold with Mandelin that is easy to read as methamphetamine’s olive-green. Check it against your blank and against Simon’s.

Reading Mandelin alone. The entire value of this reagent is whether it agrees with a result you already have.

What to run alongside it

• Marquis first, always. Broadest reagent, natural starting point. See how to read a Marquis result.
• Simon’s to split MDMA from MDA and methamphetamine from amphetamine. It turns blue for both MDMA and meth.
• Mandelin as the confirmation layer. Dark brown-black behind a purple-black Marquis is a consistent MDMA picture. Olive-green behind an orange Marquis and a blue Simon’s is a consistent methamphetamine picture.
• A fentanyl test strip on every sample, because no reagent detects fentanyl. Dissolve in 1 teaspoon (5 mL) of water per 10 mg, or 2 teaspoons (10 mL) for MDMA and methamphetamine, to avoid a false positive. Read it the right way round: one line means fentanyl is present, two lines means it is not. Full method in our fentanyl test strip guide, and strips are here.

Read Mandelin inside the first minute, under white light, next to a blank, and treat it as the vote that confirms or contradicts your Marquis. If you are testing ketamine, use Morris instead. The DanceSafe Mandelin reagent is sold on its own, and the full range of kits is worth a look if you are starting from nothing. For step by step ecstasy testing, see how to test your MDMA.

Color reactions above are the expected reactions published in DanceSafe’s reagent testing instruction pamphlet (version 17, spring 2024), DanceSafe’s reagent reaction update notes, and DanceSafe’s ketamine testing kit guidance.