Discovery of Paracetamol

The development of paracetamol began with the discovery of the fever lowering effect of acetanilide, a founding that resulted in the development of phenacitin by Bayer.

Paracetamol, N-acetyl-p-aminophenol, was a derivative synthesized by Bayer’s chemists in 1888 by Bayer but never tested for medicinal properties.

In 1893, it was evaluated clinically by Dr. von Mering, Schmiedeberg’s former student, who found that the drug produced methemoglobinemia.

However he believed mistakenly that it produced methemoglobinemia as an adverse effect and the compound was ignored.

A century later, paracetamol was reinvestigated in the United States, at the University of Yale by David Lester and C. A Greenberg, who demonstrated that paracetamol was the major metabolite of acetanilide and phenacetin, and was relatively safe as an analgesic and antipyretic.

At the same time, Flinn and Brodie found that even at high oral doses, paracetamol is not attended by the formation of methemoglobin.

In 1950 the first paracetamol product – a combination of paracetamol, aspirin and caffeine was in the United States market under the name Triagesic.
Discovery of Paracetamol