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Copyright American Chemical Society 1997

Aspirin

Chemical & Engineering News, August 18, 1997

Germany's Bayer was not looking for a drug to relieve the pain of rheumatism 100 years ago, but a 29-year-old Bayer chemist and pharmacist named Felix Hoffmann was looking for a way to relieve his father's suffering. Sodium salicylate used to treat rheumatism victims at the time not only tasted awful, but the acid also attacked the mouth and stomach linings. Working in Bayer's Elberfeld, Germany, pharmaceutical laboratory , Hoffmann acetylated salicylic acid in August 1897. The resultant acetylsalicylic acid powder, aspirin, had few of sodium salicylate's drawbacks, and besides relieving father Hoffmann's rheumatoid aches and pains, it had some additional benefits as well Bayer scientists found aspirin helped relieve headaches and toothaches, reduced fever, and combated inflammation. Bayer first sold aspirin powder to the public in 1899, and brought out a water soluble tablet in 1900. The company estimates that today consumers worldwide swallow 50 billion tablets of this wonder drug annually. Bayer still supplies 11 billion or 22% of those tablets. And physicians are still finding new uses for this old drug. It is used, for example, to help prevent heart attacks and strokes and investigators are looking into its potential to treat certain types of cancer and Alzheimer's disease.