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Sunday 18 September 2011

Aspirin

Hippocrates was the first to realize the healing power of bark of the willow tree. His ancient Greek treatment was a tea made from willow bark, and was effective against fevers and gout.

Eventually it was discovered that it was the compound salicylic acid, which occurs naturally in willow bark that caused the pain relief. Unfortunately it is bitter tasting and can cause vomiting.

By mixing acetylating salicylic acid with acetic acid, German Bayer AG chemist Felix Hoffman concocted a less acidic formula to ease his father’s arthritis on August 10, 1897. The new drug, formally acetylsalicylic acid, was named Aspirin by Bayer AG and trademarked on March 6, 1899.

The "A" in the name Aspirin was derived from derived from acetyl chloride - Acetylspirsäure in German. The "spir" comes from Spirsäure, an old German name for salicylic acid derived from the Latin Spiraea ulmaria. Bayer AG added "-in" as a typical drug name ending to make it easy to say.

Aspirin was the first drug sold in water-soluble tablets.


Within ten years Aspirin was ranked among the ten items most prescribed by American physicians. It came to symbolize modern medicine's feats in restoring a patient’s health.

Bayer was forced to surrender the trademark in the 1919 Treaty of Versailles because it was a German company, causing aspirin to become a generic drug.

A daily dose of aspirin can reduce memory loss in older people.

Americans consume 42 tons of aspirin per day.

Excessive use of aspirin can create the risk of tinnitus or ringing in the years according to the University of California. It is thought the salicylic acid, the active ingredient, can cause a variety of detrimental changes in the cochlea in the inner ear.

The weight of air in a milk glass is about the same as the weight of one aspirin tablet.

Source Greatfacts.com http://www.greatfacts.com/

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