1887

Hungarian chemist Lazar Edeleanu synthesizes amphetamine from the pure alkaloid ephedrine, which had been isolated from the Chinese (and Indian) ephedra plant by K. K. Chen in 1885. The medical properties of amphetamine as decongestant were explored only in the 1920s, and the drug was sold by SK&F in 1932 as Benzedrine. In China, the ephedra silica, in the form of the herb Ma Huang, had long been used as a remedy for asthma.