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60 free Adrenaline trivia questions with answers — science & nature quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This adrenaline trivia quiz covers the hormone behind every racing heart. It begins with the biology: the glands above the kidneys, the medulla and its chromaffin cells, the amino acids and enzymes that build the molecule, the alpha and beta receptors it binds to, and what it does to your pupils, heart, liver and pancreas when Walter Cannon's fight-or-flight response kicks in. Then it turns to history: Oliver and Schäfer's 1895 extract, John Abel's 'epinephrine', Jokichi Takamine's 1901 patent and the Parke-Davis trademark that explains why Americans and Britons use different names. The second half is medicine and culture: anaphylaxis and where to jab an EpiPen, the Mylan price scandal, croup, glaucoma and cardiac arrest, pheochromocytoma, James Black's beta blockers and the archers who abuse them, adrenochrome and its conspiracy theories, Crank, and what exactly makes an adrenaline junkie. About a third of the questions are easy; the rest suit medical students and pub quiz regulars. Our human body and hormones quizzes go wider. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on adrenaline, the adrenal gland, anaphylaxis and related topics, and each explanation adds one more detail.
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Q 01Why do Americans call the drug 'epinephrine' while Britons say 'adrenaline'?
Adrenalin was a registered US trademark
Epinephrine remains the US Adopted Name and the International Nonproprietary Name, though adrenaline is used everywhere.
Q 02Apart from the adrenal glands, which part of the brain contains neurons that produce adrenaline?
The medulla oblongata
The adrenal glands supply almost all of it, though.
Q 03Where in the body are the suprarenal glands?
Above the kidneys
Together they weigh only 7 to 10 grams.
Q 04The name 'adrenaline' comes from Latin words meaning what?
On the kidney
'Epinephrine' means the same thing in Greek: 'upon the kidney'.
Q 05The outer cortex of the adrenal gland produces which class of chemical messenger?
Steroids
Cortisol and aldosterone are the best known; the inner medulla supplies adrenaline.
Q 06What name is given to the adrenaline-producing tissue of the adrenal medulla?
Chromaffin
After removal of the adrenal glands, adrenaline vanishes from the bloodstream entirely.
Q 07Adrenaline is built from which amino acids?
Phenylalanine and tyrosine
The pathway runs through L-DOPA, dopamine and noradrenaline before the final step.
Q 08Which enzyme performs the final step that turns noradrenaline into adrenaline?
Phenylethanolamine N-methyltransferase
It depends on the high concentration of cortisol draining from the cortex into the medulla, which is why Addison's disease can suppress adrenaline.
Q 09Chemically, how does adrenaline differ from noradrenaline?
It has an extra methyl group on the nitrogen
Both belong to the catecholamine family along with dopamine.
Q 10Adrenaline, noradrenaline and dopamine belong to which family of compounds?
Catecholamines
All are derived from the amino acid tyrosine.
Q 11Adrenaline exerts its effects by binding to which two classes of receptor?
Alpha and beta
Pharmacological doses stimulate α1, α2, β1, β2 and β3 adrenoceptors.
Q 12Which physiologist first proposed the concept of the fight-or-flight response, in 1914-15?
Walter Bradford Cannon
He also coined the term homeostasis and popularised his ideas in The Wisdom of the Body (1932).
Q 13Which term did Walter Cannon coin for the body's tendency to keep its internal conditions stable?
Homeostasis
He was chairman of physiology at Harvard Medical School.
Q 21Which company held the US trademark 'Adrenalin'?
Parke, Davis & Co
Their chemist Thomas Aldrich had independently purified the hormone in 1900.
Q 22The chemist who patented Adrenalin helped give Washington, D.C. which famous gift in 1912?
Cherry blossom trees
They were planted around the Tidal Basin.
Q 23In which year did Friedrich Stolz and Henry Dakin independently first synthesise adrenaline?
1904
It was among the first hormones ever to be made artificially.
Besides severe allergic reactions and bleeding, which heart emergency is injected adrenaline used for?
Q 14What happens to the pupils during the fight-or-flight response?
They dilate
Wider pupils let in more light for a better view of the surroundings.
Q 15Which part of the heart does adrenaline act on to raise cardiac output?
The SA node
It also increases blood flow to muscles and raises blood sugar.
Q 16What effect does adrenaline have on insulin secretion by the pancreas?
It inhibits it
At the same time it stimulates the liver and muscle to break down glycogen, raising blood glucose.
Q 17Who discovered in 1946 that noradrenaline, not adrenaline, is the main sympathetic neurotransmitter?
Ulf von Euler
The word 'adrenergic' is therefore often misinterpreted.
Q 18Which physicians showed in 1895 that an adrenal extract raising blood pressure came from the gland's inner part?
George Oliver and Edward Schäfer
Oliver was a general practitioner in North Yorkshire; Schäfer a physiologist at University College London.
Q 19Which pharmacologist prepared an adrenal extract in 1897 and coined the US name for the hormone?
John Abel
He built the name from the Greek for 'upon' and 'kidney'.
Q 20Which Japanese chemist patented a purified adrenal extract in 1901, trademarked as Adrenalin?
Jokichi Takamine
He also isolated the starch-digesting enzyme takadiastase and helped give Washington its cherry trees.
Cardiac arrest
Inhaled, it is also used for croup and sometimes for asthma.
Q 25Where should an adrenaline injection be given for a suspected severe allergic reaction?
The outer thigh
That is the site of the vastus lateralis muscle.
Q 26Who invented the EpiPen in the mid-1970s?
Sheldon Kaplan
He worked at Survival Technology in Bethesda, Maryland; the FDA approved it in 1987.
Q 27Which company raised the price of a two-pack of EpiPens from about $100 to $600 between 2007 and 2016?
Mylan
It had bought the marketing rights from Merck KGaA and held about 90% of the market.
Q 28Which two French physiologists discovered anaphylaxis in dogs in 1902 while studying sea-creature toxins?
Charles Richet and Paul Portier
Prince Albert I of Monaco had invited them on an expedition; Richet won the 1913 Nobel Prize for the work.
Q 29Roughly what share of people worldwide experience life-threatening allergic shock?
0.05 to 2%
Common triggers include insect stings, nuts, milk, eggs, antibiotics and latex.
Q 30Adrenaline is a common additive to local anaesthetics and is used to stop what?
Surface bleeding
It constricts blood vessels through alpha-1 receptors, which also raises blood pressure.