when was paracetamol discovered

Paracetamol was first synthesized in 1877 (sometimes dated 1878) by the American chemist Harmon Northrop Morse, but it was not used clinically until 1893, when Joseph von Mering administered it to patients as a fever- and pain‑reducing drug.

Quick Scoop

• The chemical synthesis of paracetamol was achieved by Harmon Northrop Morse at Johns Hopkins University in 1877 by reducing p‑nitrophenol with tin in glacial acetic acid.

• Some historical accounts suggest related compounds and possibly paracetamol‑like substances were made earlier in the 1850s by Charles Frédéric Gerhardt or the firm Cahn & Hepp, but this evidence is less clear.

• Its medical use came later: Joseph von Mering reported using paracetamol in humans as an antipyretic (fever reducer) in 1893.

• Widespread commercial availability did not occur until the mid‑20th century: it appeared on the market in the United States around 1950 and in Australia in 1956, before becoming a standard over‑the‑counter pain and fever medicine worldwide.

In short, paracetamol was discovered in the laboratory in the late 1870s, recognized for its therapeutic effects in the 1890s, and only much later became the familiar household medicine people use today.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.