Aspirin is natural? Plant based?
That right! Aspirin originally comes from the spiraea bush–just like the ones in your yard.
Pink flowers of a spirea
Originally it was ancient Egyptians that used a form of aspirin derived from willow bark. The active ingredient was is a naturally occurring alkaloid, common in many plants called acetyl salicylic acid.
After a few thousand years of being used as a home-remedy for pain, 19th century researchers at a German drug company named Bayer assimilated the ingredient in the spiraea that made pain go away, an alkaloid in the form of acetyl salicylic acid. It was acidic and hard on the stomach so it needed some sort of buffer to ease the effects of the acid on the lining of the stomach. In 1899 they introduced Bayer Aspirin to the modern world as a new medical pain treatment.
Acetylsalicylic acid is named Aspirin by Bayer. The letter ‘A’ stands for acetyl, “spir” is derived from Spiraea plant, which yields salicin, and “in” was a common suffix used for drugs at the time of the first stable synthesis of acetylsalicylic acid. A-SPIR-IN.
Who would have thought that modern man could synthesize something that we as a society have been using freely for over 4500 years, package it and convince the world they invented something new you now have to buy.
