Amylocaine hydrochlorideProduct ingredient for Amylocaine

Despite the introduction of using cocaine injections for regional anesthesia in 1884, non-addictive substitutes were sought after immediately ⁴. Finally, in 1903 the world's first synthetic and non-addictive local anesthetic, amylocaine, was synthesized and patented under the name Forneaucaine by Ernest Fourneau at the Pasteur Institute ⁴. Elsewhere in English speaking countries it was referred to as Stovaine, given the meaning of the French word 'fourneau' as 'stove' in English ⁴.

Although amylocaine could be administered topically or injected, it was most widely used for spinal anesthesia ⁴. Even though it certainly possessed less severe side effects than cocaine ⁴, the eventual development and clinical use of newer, more effective, and even safer local anesthetics like lidocaine, bupivicaine, and prilocaine in the 1940s and 1950s superseded and made the use of amylocaine obsolete.