Aspirin began as willow bark’s synthetic cousin
Salicin from Salix trees has been used for at least 2,400 years. Bayer branded acetylsalicylic acid “Aspirin” by 1899; today humans swallow an estimated 40,000 tonnes yearly—some 50 to 120 billion pills across the planet.
Aspirin is the genericized name for acetylsalicylic acid, an NSAID that eases pain, fever, and inflammation and also acts as an antithrombotic. Clinicians use it for inflammatory conditions such as Kawasaki disease, pericarditis, and rheumatic fever, and long-term to lower chances of heart attack, ischemic stroke, and clotting in high-risk people. Pain or fever relief typically starts within about 30 minutes. Like other NSAIDs it hits cyclooxygenase pathways, but it uniquely suppresses ordinary platelet function.
Willow bark’s salicin, metabolized to salicylic acid in the gut, supplied a folk template for millennia. Charles Frédéric Gerhardt made acetylsalicylic acid in 1853 by treating sodium salicylate with acetyl chloride; Bayer chemists later refined structure and production, with Felix Hoffmann—or perhaps Arthur Eichengrün—first producing a practical pharmaceutical form, and the company selling Aspirin worldwide by 1899. The brand blended acetyl with Spirsäure (meadowsweet, once Spiraea) plus a drug suffix; trademark rights later eroded in many countries. Synthesis taught in labs esterifies salicylic acid with acetic anhydride, often acid-catalyzed, yielding aspirin and acetic acid.
Scale is enormous: roughly 40,000 tonnes yearly, 50–120 billion pills, a place on WHO’s Essential Medicines list, and more than 14 million U.S. prescriptions in 2023 (46th most prescribed). Common downsides include upset stomach; worse ones include ulcers, bleeding, and asthma flares. Bleeding risk climbs with age, alcohol, other NSAIDs, or anticoagulants. It is avoided late in pregnancy and generally in children with viral infections because of Reye syndrome; high doses can cause tinnitus. Even tablet factories watch airborne powder—NIOSH recommends a 5 mg/m³ exposure limit—because aspirin dust can explode. A household white pill still carries botanical roots and industrial hazards.
Source: Aspirin
