Paraquat Brand and Trade Names, From Gramoxone to Ortho

What Products Contain Paraquat?

Paraquat is not a brand name. It is a chemical, paraquat dichloride, that serves as the active ingredient in a wide range of herbicide products. Some are sold under distinctive brand names, while others are sold as generic paraquat formulations identified mainly by the active ingredient and concentration on the label.

The single most reliable way to confirm that a product contained paraquat is to read the active-ingredient line on the label, where it appears as paraquat dichloride. Brand names change over time and vary by region and manufacturer, so the label, not the marketing name, is the dependable signal.

Gramoxone: The Best-Known Paraquat Brand

Gramoxone is the original and most recognizable paraquat product. It was introduced in the 1960s and has been sold in several formulations over the decades, including more recent versions marketed under names such as Gramoxone SL and Gramoxone 2.0 / 3.0. When people search for "what is Gramoxone," the answer is that it is a paraquat-based herbicide, so the health and exposure questions surrounding paraquat apply to Gramoxone as well.

Because Gramoxone has been on the market for so long, it is the product most often named when workers describe handling paraquat, and it features prominently in paraquat litigation.

Other Paraquat Brand and Trade Names

Beyond Gramoxone, paraquat has been sold under dozens of brand and trade names in the United States and internationally since 1962. The table below collects the names that come up most often in exposure histories, grouped by era. Every paraquat product registered in the United States today is a restricted use pesticide limited to certified applicators, and registrations change over time, so the EPA's restricted use product list remains the authoritative current source.

This list is not exhaustive. New generic formulations have entered the market over time, and product names differ across regions and manufacturers. Names alone do not always reveal paraquat content, which is why the active-ingredient line on the label remains the key detail.

Paraquat Brand Names in the 1970s and 1980s

People reconstructing exposures from the 1970s and 1980s, the era most relevant to Parkinson's claims today given the disease's long latency, are usually looking at one of two product families. Gramoxone was on the US market throughout, sold by ICI and its successors. Ortho Paraquat CL was Chevron Chemical's line, distributed widely in US agriculture from the 1960s until Chevron exited the paraquat business in the mid-1980s.

The distinction matters legally as well as historically. Which company's product was used, and in which years, shapes who the proper defendants are in a paraquat Parkinson's lawsuit. Older international and mixed-formulation names such as Dexuron or Preglone occasionally appear in records from that era too, especially for work done outside the United States.

Generic Paraquat Dichloride Products

As paraquat came off its original patents, other manufacturers began selling generic versions. These are often labeled simply by the active ingredient and concentration, for example as paraquat dichloride 43.8 percent or in formulations such as 2 SL or 3 SL. Generic products may not carry a memorable brand name at all, which can make a past exposure harder to recall years later.

How to Identify Which Paraquat Product Was Used

People trying to reconstruct a past paraquat exposure, often years after the fact, generally work backward from whatever records and memories are available. Helpful starting points include:

• The product label or container, if any photos or records survive
• Purchase receipts, invoices, or farm supply records
• Pesticide application logs or licensing records
• The employer, farm, or operation where the work happened
• The years and crops involved, which can narrow down likely products
• Coworker or supervisor recollections of the products used

Even when the exact brand is uncertain, establishing that a workplace used paraquat-based herbicides during the relevant years can be an important part of the picture.

Why Product Identification Matters

In the context of paraquat Parkinson's lawsuits, identifying the specific product and manufacturer can matter because claims are generally directed at the companies that made or distributed the product. Connecting a work history to a particular paraquat product, and to the years it was used, is part of how an exposure story is assembled. The same kind of product and work-history reconstruction is discussed more generally in What Evidence Helps a Lawsuit?