George Oliver (1841–1915), Edward Schafer (1850–1935), Jockichi Takamine (1854–1922), Walter Bradford Cannon (1871–1945)
Epinephrine/adrenaline has attracted the enthusiastic interest of scientists and the medical community for more than a century. It was the first hormone isolated in pure crystalline form and quickly played an important role in medical clinics and operating rooms. Notable physiologists focused attention on its protective functions when stress and danger confront the body.
In the mid-1890s, George Oliver and Edward Schafer, working at University College, London, determined that injections of adrenal gland extracts increased blood pressure in animals to an extent not previously seen. Not surprisingly, attempts were made in various laboratories to isolate the chemical responsible for this powerful response. Credit for the successful purification of epinephrine (alternatively called adrenaline in the United Kingdom and British Commonwealth) belongs to Jockichi Takamine, a Japanese American chemist. In 1901, Takamine assigned his patented process to Parke, Davis &Company, which marketed it as Adrenalin and made Takamine extremely wealthy.
Within a few years, epinephrine/adrenaline was widely used for the emergency treatment of acute asthmatic attacks, heart failure, sudden and severe drops in blood pressure, and bronchial asthma. In operating rooms, this drug is applied to the skin and mucous membranes to control superficial bleeding by shrinking blood vessels. When combined with local anesthetics, it extends their duration of action. Many of these therapeutic applications continue to be of value in contemporary medical practice.
Walter Cannon, an illustrious American physiologist at Harvard Medical School studied in detail the role of epinephrine/adrenaline in our “fight or flight” response to fear and extreme stress. Cannon initially published his findings in 1915 and popularized them in his 1932 book The Wisdom of the Body. Mediated largely by epinephrine/ adrenaline, these “fight or flight” responses—including increases in heart rate and blood pressure, redirection of blood flow to voluntary muscles, enhanced breathing efficiency, and increased blood glucose to provide energy—have all permitted us to survive.
SEE ALSO Percorten (1939), Albuterol/Salbutamol (1968), Ephedra/Ephedrine (1994).
This illustration from Gray’s Anatomy (1870) depicts the adrenal (suprarenal) gland sitting as a cap atop the kidney. The adrenal gland consists of two distinct structures: the outer adrenal cortex, which secretes such hormones as cortisol (hydrocortisone) and aldosterone, and the inner adrenal medulla that produces epinephrine (adrenaline) and norepinephrine.