-
The main ingredient in Aspirin is Salicylic acid, which is can be found in the bark of a willow tree. The first recorded use of willow bark as a medicinal remedy dates back to the Sumerians, who noted this information on early clay tablets.
-
The Father of Modern Medicine, Hippocrates, started recommending willow bark tea to patients suffering from fever and pain.
-
The healing properties of willow bark started spreading to Chinese and Greek Civilizations.
-
In Greece, physician named Dioscorides started prescribing willow bark as an anti-inflammatory agent to patients with a fever.
-
Reverend Edward Stone of the Royal Society of London started studying the effects of willow bark powder by prescribing it to patients suffering from ague, a fever caused by malaria.
-
Johann Büchner and a team of scientists discovered that it was a specific compound called salicilin in the willow plants that relieved pain.
-
Charles Frederic Gerhardt neutralized the salicylic acid by adding sodium to it, and he created acetylsalicylic acid. His product worked but he abandoned the discovery because he didn't want to sell it.
-
Felix Hoffmann, a German chemist working for a company called Bayer, rediscovered Charles Frederic Gerhardt's formula. He recreated some for his father who was in pain from arthritis. His recipe worked so well that Hoffmann convinced Bayer to start producing it.
-
On February 27th, 1900, Bayer started selling the acetylsalicylic acid in powder form. They named their product "Aspirin", the "A" coming from acetyl chloride, and the "spir" coming from spiraea ulmaria (the plant they got the salicylic acid from).
-
In 1915, Bayer started producing and selling Aspirin in tablet form instead of their standard powdered form.
-
As part of the Treaty of Versailles, Bayer was forced to give up their trademark of Aspirin due to Germany losing World War I.
-
Scientists and pharmacologists like John Robert Vane started conducting experiments to find out how Aspirin worked in the body as an anti-inflammatory agent.
-
Today Americans consume 16,000 tons (80 billion tablets) of Aspirin per year, and spend about $2 billion on over the counter pain relievers.
