Aspirin - The Drug of the Century
 Most
drugs are replaced by better ones after just a few years. Aspirin, however,
is as popular as ever, not just as a “home remedy” for pain, fever
and colds, but also as a prophylaxis for cardiac infarct and stroke. This
despite
the fact its active ingredient is 105-years-old and counting! And the medicine
of the twentieth century may even have a new career: there is evidence that
Aspirin reduces the frequency of colon cancer.
 The
origins of Aspirin can be found in nature. Hippocrates (460-377 BC), generally
considered the Father of Medicine, recognized the pain-relieving effect of
the juice obtained from the bark of willow trees (Latin, salix). As we now
know, this juice contains salicylic acid.
In 1897, the young Bayer chemist Dr. Felix Hoffman was searching for an
effective
drug for rheumatism. He wanted to help his rheumatic father, who reacted
negatively
to the prescribed sodium salicylate, with its awful taste and aggressive side
effects. Hoffman tried to “refine” the salicylic acid to make it
more tolerable and ultimately succeeded in this task by acetylation - creating
a compound of salicylic acid with acetic acid.
Acetylsalicylic acid, ASA for short, was the first drug ever to be tested
in clinical trials before registration. The results were so positive that
Bayer
decided to begin production. In 1899, less than two years after Dr. Hoffman
first produced ASA in a chemically pure form, people suffering from pain could
buy the active substance as a bottled powder under its new trade name,
Aspirin.
This marked the beginning of a triumphal march through medical history. ASA
has proved to be a versatile "home remedy" - and with no
sell-by-date
in sight. In 1996, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration suggested extending
the range of indications for acetylsalicylic acid. According to the largest
study with patients carried out in medical history, this “miracle drug” not
only relieves pain, stops inflammation and reduces fever, but also works as
a prophylaxis against infarction, stroke and a number of related
cardiovascular
diseases.
Investigations carried out in Spain in the 1990s determined that a special
effect of ASA may reduce the risk of certain types of cancer, as well. And
the research continues. Today, a new scientific publication on Aspirin appears
ever two and a half hours. Not bad for a drug invented in the nineteenth
century!
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