EUMENOL—Merck’s Patent Emmenagogue and its Chinese Connections (1896–1961)

Abstract

This article examines the rise and fall of Eumenol, Merck's patent emmenagogue extracted from danggui (當歸), and its destined connections with China. Understood to affect the blood, danggui, one of the most prolifically used substance among Chinese materia medica, had been included in recipes for women aged from before menarche to after menopause since the twelfth century, but it was not until its production and advertisement by the German pharmaceutical company that the multi-functional material was placed on the international stage with a sharpened gendered image. For Merck customers around the world, Eumenol was a long-awaited, harmless emmenagogue made from an obscure Chinese material; for Chinese who had been using the root to treat a wide range of disorders, the branded drug was a scientific refinement of a time-honored medicine. The success of Eumenol gave advocates of Chinese medicine a concrete example with which to rejuvenate their medical traditions, but the later cessation of Chinese imports forced Merck to eventually stop marketing the emmenagogue. Within this intersection of medicinal exchanges, Eumenol emerged as an indispensable piece of the puzzle in terms of both the history of an ancient remedy and the modernization of Chinese medicine.