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Aspirin discovered during experiment with waste product
Friedrich Bayer was born in 1825, the only son in a family of six children. His father was a weaver and dyer, and Bayer followed in his footsteps. In 1848, he opened his own dye business, which became very successful. In the past, all dyes had come from organic materials, but in 1856 coal tar dyes were discovered. Bayer and Friedrich Weskott, a master dyer, saw great potential in coal tar, and in 1863 they formed Friedrich Bayer et Compagnie to manufacture the dyes.
Hoffmann's Aspirin
Bayer died on May 6, 1880, while the company was still in the fabric dye
business. The company went on to employ chemists to come up with innovative
dyes and products and in 1897 that's exactly what one of the chemists, Felix
Hoffmann, did. While experimenting with a waste product of one of the
dye components to find relieve for his father's rheumatism, Hoffmann chemically
synthesised a stable form of salicylic acid powder. The compound became
the active ingredient in a pharmaceutical wonder product: Aspirin.
The title was named "a" from acetyl, and "spir" from the spirea plant, meadowsweet
(Filipendula ulmaria, also known as Spiraea ulmaria), the
source of salicin.
Already in use for the 3500 years
However, Hoffmann did not discover "aspirin." He "rediscovered"
it after studying experiments on acetylsalicylic acid made 40 years earlier
by French chemist Charles Gergardt. In 1837, Gergardt produced good results,
but the procedure was difficult and time consuming. He decided that it was
not practical, and set it aside. But Gerhardt knew quite well about potential
cures of acetylsalicylic acid because it had been proclaimed for more than
3 500 years!
In early-1800, German Egyptologist Georg Ebers bought papyruses from an Egyptian street vendor. The Ebers Papyrus, as they are known, contained a collection of 877 medicinal recipes from 2500 BC and recommended an infusion of dried myrtle leaves for rheumatic and back pain. Even in 400 BC Hippocrates of Kos, the father of all doctors, recommended a tea extract from the bark of the willow tree for fever, pain, and labour. The active substance in this juice, which does in fact ease pain, is, as we know today, salicylic acid. In China and Asia, and among North American Indians and the Hottentots of South Africa the beneficial effect of plants containing salicylic acid was known from early times.
The breakthrough
Although it relieved pain, the willow bark extract, salicylic acid, caused
severe stomach and mouth irritation. Hoffmann's breakthrough came on 10
August 1897 when he produced the first 100% chemically pure form of acetylsalicylic
acid, thus without the free salicylic acid. On 6 March 1899, Bayer registered
Aspirin as a trademark. Not without a challenge, though. In fact, initially
it received trade certificates only in the US. In England and Germany, other
companies challenged the patents, citing their own research. Hoffmann's
written evidence prevailed, and when he retired in 1928, Aspirin was known
throughout the world. He, however, lived unrecognised until his death on
8 February 1946 in Switzerland.
Diacetylmorphine
Aspirin was Hoffmann's most remarkable, but not his only success. A few
days after he succeeded in synthesising acetylsalicylic acid, he manufactured
another compound for which the Bayer company had high hopes, but today finds
dubious popularity: diacetylmorphine, or heroin, a substance obtained a
few decades earlier by English chemist C.R.A. Wright. Heroin was prescribed
cautiously during WWI but by 1931 it disappeared from medicine lists in
almost all countries.
By 1891, Bayer had introduced an assorted product range. Today, it has more than 10,000 products.
Aspirin had became known as a preventative medicine in the fight against heart attacks, strokes and, lately, cancer. It also went into space in the first-aid kit of the Apollo 11's lunar module.
Scientists found that the part of willow bark that is bitter and good for pain is the chemical salicin. This chemical can be converted by the body after it is eaten to another chemical, salicylic acid. Aspirin is a member of this family of chemicals called salicylates. To find out how aspirin works, see How Stuff Works
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