Lidocaine is a local anesthetic - a stuff that is made use to reduce pain by jamming signals at the endings of the nerve in skin. It is also an antiarrhythmic, that is, it is given intravenously in order to stop heart arrhythmias.  It is derived from gramine which is an alkaloid found in a reed plant found in Central Asia.

In 1935, it was first synthesized by two Swedish scientists, Euler and Erdtman, when they were studying the structure of the alkaloid gramine.

  Earlier they had found other such anesthetic substances but they were not suitable for clinical use because they caused skin irritation and other side effects.  Then Bengt Lundqvist and Nils Lofgren developed Lidocaine in 1943.  It was however only in 1948, that it was first marketed, after being tested extensively.