When was aspirin invented?

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.

In 1930s, Bayer's aspirin entered the China market. 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.