The Discovery of Antihistamines: A History of Allergy Relief

Antihistamines are laboratory synthesized drugs used to counteract allergy symptoms in humans caused by histamines. Histamines are natural compounds. The first antihistamine was produced by Italian Daniel Bovet in 1937.

History

• Histamines were first established as the cause of allergy reactions in 1932. Bovet's work led him to create the original antihistamine five years later, which was called thymoxidiethylamine (source 1).

Considerations

• This first antihistamine turned out to be too toxic for humans, so Bovet continued with hundreds of subsequent experiments in search of a more human-friendly combination.

Next Generation

• In 1944, Bovet reached his goal of making a safe antihistamine available to the public. It was called pyrilamine and worked quite well.

Significance

• Though much more research has been conducted in the field of antihistamines, it was Bovet's initial groundbreaking inquiries that set the stage for the safe and effective mass production of them.

Alternatives

• According to Dr. Ray Sahelian, M.D., there are a number of natural antihistamines, such as butterbur and mangosteen, but their effectiveness has not been established through human trials yet (source 2).