Paracetamol (acetaminophen) was first used in patients in the early 1890s, with clinical use commonly dated to 1893 by the German physician Joseph von Mering.

Quick Scoop

  • Paracetamol was first synthesized in the late 1870s (often cited as 1877–1878) by chemist Harmon Northrop Morse, but it was not used in medicine at that time.
  • Its first documented clinical use as a pain‑ and fever‑relieving drug is usually given as 1893, when von Mering administered it to humans and reported his results.
  • Despite this early use, paracetamol did not become a widely sold medicine until around the mid‑20th century, appearing commercially in the United States around 1950 and in Australia and the UK a few years later.

Mini timeline

  1. Late 1870s – Laboratory synthesis by Harmon Northrop Morse.
  1. 1893 – First recognized clinical use and publication by Joseph von Mering.
  1. 1950–1956 – Launch as a branded over‑the‑counter product (Tylenol in the US, Panadol in the UK and other markets).

In short: it was made in the lab in the 1870s, first used on patients in 1893, and only became a common household medicine many decades later.

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