Terminology
This chemical is widely referred to as "adrenaline" outside the United States; however, its United States Adopted Name and International Nonproprietary Name is epinephrine. Epinephrine was chosen as the generic name in the United States because John Abel, who prepared extracts from the adrenal glands in 1897, used that name for his extracts. In 1901, Jokichi Takamine patented a purified adrenal extract, and called it "adrenalin", which was trademarked by Parke, Davis & Co in the U.S. In the belief that Abel's extract was the same as Takamine's, a belief since disputed, epinepherine became the generic name in the U.S. The British Approved Name and European Pharmacopoeia term for this chemical is adrenaline and is indeed now one of the few differences between the INN and BAN systems of names.
Among American health professionals and scientists, the term epinephrine is used over adrenaline. However, pharmaceuticals that mimic the effects of epinephrine are often called adrenergics, and receptors for epinephrine are called adrenergic receptors or adrenoceptors.
Read more about this topic: Epinephrine