ASPIRIN SINCE 400 BC

ASPIRIN

SINCE 400 BC

Hipporcrates, around 400 BC made a 'tea' of the bark of a willow tree and used it to

ease pain of women during child birth. This tea works well and Greek doctors advised people with pain to 'chew' the bark of the willow tree. This discovery was lost in time.

2000 years later clergymen in London also discovered the the willow bark would 'ease' pain. What was the ingredient of the willow tree that reduced pain and fevers ? It was 1828

before chemists found “ salacin' in the bark and another decade before the French isolated and

synthesized 'salicylic acid' which became the drug “salicylates” .

A major obstacle, the 'acid' was upsetting to the stomach, the neutralizers did not help, but

people used the drug because it was effective.

French chemist Charles Frederick Gerhart, in 1853, experimented with salicylic acid by

adding acetyl choride to a sodium and acid combiation which helped cut down stomach irritation,

however, he felt there was not enough of a change and discontinued his research.

1899 Felix Hoffmann, a German chemists, picked up Gerhart's results whice he sightly

modified and used it to help his father cope with arthritis. He then showed his findings to some

backers, the Bayer Company.

Bayer, selling the drug as a powder, the new Aspirin was a instant success. Today more than 50 million tablets per day are used, the most used drug in the country.

Source: Theories & Discoveries; zooba.com. September 14 2017 abstract by Harrison H.