How was aspirin born?

As early as 400 BC in ancient Greece, Hippocrates, known as the "father of western medicine", proposed to use the soaking liquid of willow bark to alleviate the pain of lying-in women. 1758, British priest Edward Stone accidentally tore off a piece of white willow bark and chewed it. Unexpectedly, his joint pain and fever have eased. He treated 50 patients in the same way and found that this juice was very effective in treating fever. He reported the experimental results to the Royal Society, but it didn't get enough attention. Later, it was found that the active ingredient of this fruit juice was salicylic acid.

In the 1920s, a Swiss scientist extracted salicylic acid from the leaves of a plant. However, although it has analgesic and antipyretic effects, it has a strong corrosive effect on esophagus and stomach, and only those with severe pain can take it. 1853, French chemist Charles Frederic Gerard solved this problem by combining salicylic acid extracted from another plant Spiraea with acetic acid and acetyl, but he died before further verification of this synthetic drug.

Hoffman, a chemist of Bayer Pharmaceutical Company in Germany, developed a salicylic acid analogue with structural transformation in 1895 on the basis of previous exploration and development. Compared with other salicylic acid drugs, this product has much less side effects. Hoffman and his colleague Heinrich Dreeser conducted a lot of experiments on this drug. In the process of naming this article, they thought that its relationship with Spiraea should be reflected in the name of the medicine-so aspirin was born: A stands for acetyl, spir is the first four letters of Spiraea, and in is the suffix added to each medicine name unique to Bayer. Aspirin with capital A has become the greatest pride and contribution to the world in Bayer 100 history.

1On March 6th, 899, Bayer Company, where Hoffman worked, applied to the Royal Society of Berlin for this patent. Three years later, the first tablet of this new drug was born. 1April, 903, Bayer entered the American market and finally took root in the United States.

As soon as aspirin came out, it immediately became the best-selling painkiller for treating colds, headaches, fever, rheumatism and relieving and treating pain in joints and other parts. And in July 1969, aspirin went to the moon with astronaut Armstrong to treat astronauts' headaches and muscle pains.

At that time, Hoffman and Bayer certainly didn't expect: 100 years ago, countless new drugs disappeared without a trace after being popular for a while, but this cheap and humble small white pill could last for a long time. According to relevant statistics, at present, the world consumes 50,000 tons of aspirin every year, about 60 billion tablets. Only the United States and Britain consume 1. 1 10,000 tons a year.