High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Epinephrine (also referred to as adrenaline; see Terminology) is a hormone and neurotransmitter. When produced in the body it increases heart rate, dilates blood vessels and air passages and participates in the "fight or flight" response of the sympathetic nervous system. It is a catecholamine, a sympathomimetic monoamine produced by the adrenal glands from the amino acids phenylalanine and tyrosine. The term epinephrine is derived from the Greek roots epi- and nephros, and literally means on the kidney, in reference to the gland's anatomic location. The Latin roots ad- and renes have similar meanings, and give rise to adrenaline. The term epinephrine is often shortened to epi in medical jargon. Japanese chemist Jokichi Takamine and his assistant Keizo Uenaka independently discovered epinephrine in 1900. In 1901 Takamine successfully isolated and purified the hormone from the adrenal glands of sheep and oxen. Epinephrine was first synthesized by Friedrich Stolz and Henry Drysdale Dakin, independently, in 1904.