A Brief Chronology of Pharmacology

1640s
- Cinchona bark introduced into Europe from South America

1763
- Introduction of salicylates as willow bark extract into medicine for the treatment of pain by Edward Stone

1816
- Pelletier isolated emetine

1820
- Pelletier and Caventou extract quinine and other alkaloids from cinchona bark

1838
- Salicylic acid isolated from the glycoside salicin

1853
- Aspirin first synthesized by Gerhardt

1860
- Becamp synthesised atoxyl (a pentavalent organic arsenical used for syphilis)

1878
- Pasteur demonstrated the antagonist effects of some bacteria on anthrax

1887
- Phenacetin introduced

1889
- Vuillemin used the word ‘antibiosis’ indicating the competition between microbes

1891
- Ehrlich demonstrated the antimalarial actions of methylene blue

1899
- Aspirin first used medically by Dreser

1904
- Ehrlich investigated the antibacterial effects of benzopurpurin

1905
- Thomas and Breinl use atoxyl to treat syphilis

1906
- Dubos isolated thyrotricin-containing preparations of Bacillus brevis

1906
- Ehrlich proposed the concept of ‘therapia sterilans magna’ which meant the eradication of an infecting organism with the use of a drug

1907
- Ehrlich synthesised arsphenamine (Salvarsan) and introduced the concept of chemotherapy

1908
- Gelmo synthesized the first sulphonamide, p-aminobenzenesulphonamide

1909
- Ehrlich and Bertheim synthesize carbarsone (later used for amoebiasis)

1912
- Rogers used emetine to treat amoebiasis

1919
- Brown and Pearce introduce tryparsamide for the treatment of trypanosomiasis and syphilis

1919
- Heidelberger and Jacobs demonstrated the antibacterial actions of azosulphonamide

1920s
- Heyman synthesises the antitrypnasomal suramin

1921
– Carbon tetrachloride and tetrachloroethylene introduced by Hall for the treatment of roundworm infections

1923
- Barger and Stedman discovered that physostigmine could inhibit cholinesterase

1924
- Fourneau synthesises suramin independently of Heyman

1927
- Schulemann and Memmi synthesised the first synthetic antimalarial, pamaquine

1929
- Fleming discovered the antibiotic effects of cultures of Penicillium

1929
- Levaditti introduced bismuth compounds for the treatment of syphilis in place of mercurials

1930
- Leake introduces carbasone for the treatment of amoebiasis

1931
- Aeschlimann demonstrated that neostigmine inhibits cholinesterase

1932
- Domagk discovered the antibacterial properties of prontosil
- Lamson introduces hexylresorcinol for nematode infections

1932
- Stedman et al prepared a crude extract of an acetylcholine-splitting enzyme from horse serum, which they called choline esterase

1933
- Mauss and Mietsch synthesised quinacrine

1935
- Hanzlik prepared oral formulations of bismuth compounds for the treatment of syphilis

1935
- Trefuël, Trefuël, Nitti and Bovet showed that the active component of prontosil was sulphanilamide

1936
- Colebrok and Kenny provided clinical evidence of the use of Prontosil in pueperal fever

1937
- Buttle showed that diaminodiphenylsulphone had strong antibacterial actions

1938
- Kikuth started using quinacrine to treat malaria

1939
- Dubos isolated gramicidin is crystalline form

1940
- Chain and Florey purified penicillin and applied it to the treatment of infections

1940
- Feldman, Hinshaw and Moses used glucosulphone to treat tuberculosis

1940
- Mann and Keilin reported the inhibitory effects of sulphanilamide on carbonic anhydrase

1940
- Woods and Fildes showed that PABA (p-aminobenzoic acid) could inhibit the actions of sulfanilamide

1941
- Faget used glucosulphone to treat leprosy

1942
- Curd and Rose synthesised a series of biguanides

1943
- Hauer synthesised glycobiarsol (later used for amoebiasis)

1943
- Nachmansohn and Machado found that the acetylation of choline in rabbit brain tissues was an ATP-dependent process

1944
- Dodd and Stillman demonstrated the bactericidal actions of furan derivatives

1944
- Woodward and Doering synthesised quinine

1944
- Yorke introduces the trypanosomidal stilbamide

1945
- Chorine showed that nicotinamide had tuberculostatic actions

1945
- Davey introduced biguanides for the treatment of malaria

1945
- Meleney isolated bacitracin from Bacillus subtilis

1946
- Du Vigneaud synthesized penicillin
- Faber et al first used methotrexate as an antimetabolite in the treatment of leukaemia
- Lehmann used PAS (p-aminosalicyclic acid) to treat tuberculosis

1947
- Brownlee isolated polymyxins from Bacillus aerosporus
- Waksman isolated several antibiotic compounds including streptomycin from Streptomyces griseus

1948
- Alving develops primaquine
- Burkholder isolated chloramphenicol from Streptomyces venezuelae
- Duggar isolated chlortetracycline from Streptomyces aureofaciens

1949
- Curd and Davey introduce the trypanocidal antrycide
- Dennis introduces glycobiarsol for the treatment of amoebiasis
- Hitchings synthesised pyrimethamine while investigating anticancers
- Waksman isolated neomycin from Streptomycin fradiae

1950
- Adams and Whittaker also Wilson and Bergmann discovered the anionic and esteratic sites of acetylcholinesterase
- Finley isolated oxytetracycline from Streptomyces rimosus
- Hazen and Brown isolated nystatin from Streptomyces noursei
- Koyama isolated colistin from Aerobacillus colistinus

1951
- Guggenheim uses the term ‘die biogenen Amine’ (biogenic amines) to describe low molecular weight compounds of varied physiological importance
- Sanger and Tuppy determined the amino acid sequence of the dimeric peptide insulin

1952
- Fox synthesized isoniazid
- Kushner introduced pyrazinamide
- McGuire isolated erythromycin from Streptomyces erythraeus
- Tanner isolated carbomycin from Streptomyces halstedii

1954
- Sobin isolated oleandomycin from Streptomyces antibioticus

1957
- Umezawa isolated kanamycin from Streptomyces kanamyceticus

1958
- Amphotericin B from Streptomyces nodosus introduced

1958
- Wragg introduces the trypanosomidal metamidium

1959
- Shafei isolated paromomycin from Streptomyces sp

1960
– Niclosamine introduced for the treatment of taenia infections by Gönnert and Schraufstätter

1969
- Lancini et al discovered that the action of rifamycin was due to its inhibition of nucleotidyltransferase