Medical History: Aspirin is a drug that inhibits the production of prostaglandins, body chemicals that are necessary for blood clotting and sensitizes nerve endings. The father of modern medicine was Hippocrates, who lived around 460 BC to 377 BC. He left historical records for pain relief treatment, which included the use of a powder made from bark leaves of the willow tree to help headaches, pains and fever. In 1829, scientists discovered that it was the compound called salicin in willow plants which gave the pain relief. This was isolated by Johann Buchnmer, Professor of Pharmacy at University of Munich. In 1829 a French chemist, Henri Leroux had improved the extraction procedure to obtain about 30 g from 1.5 g of bark. In 1838, Raffaele Piria (Italian chemist), who was working at the Sorbonne split salicin into a sugar and aromatic component (salicylaidehyde) and converted the later into an acid of crystalized colorless needles,which he named salicylic acid. Salicylic acid was hard on the stomach. The first person to find a buffering agent was a French chemist named Charles Federic Gerhardt in 1853.
Posted on: Sat, 07 Sep 2013 03:36:18 +0000
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