The first edition of the Merck's Index was published in 1889 by the German chemical company Emanuel Merck and was primarily used as a sales catalog for Merck's growing list of chemicals it sold.[2] The American subsidiary was established two years later and continued to publish it. During World War I the US government seized Merck's US operations and made it a separate American "Merck" company that continued to publish the Merck Index.
In 2012 the Merck Index was licensed to the
named reactions
.
The 15th edition was published in April 2013.
Monographs in The Merck Index typically contain:[1]
a
CAS registry number
synonyms of the substance, such as
International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry nomenclature
